kǎo
examine
Original meaning:
old father
Depicts an old man (耂) with a cane (丂). Originally the same character as 老. Based on the original meaning "old father". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Component uses
Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*k-r̥ˤuʔ | khawX | kǎo | old; deceased father |
Statistics
HSK level 1
Appears in 66.0740% of movies
566th most common character in movies
495th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 6 |
Unicode | U+8003 |
Shuowen | “考,老也。从老省,丂聲。” |
Sources
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