zhōng

clock

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components
金 meaning component

  Meaning component

jīn

  

metal

童 sound component

  Sound component

tóng

  

child

Evolution

鐘 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
鐘 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
鐘 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
鐘 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

zhōng

clock; bell; o'clock; time as measured in hours and minutes; CL:[jià],[zuò]

Most common words with 鐘
Freq.
Word
Meaning

分钟

minute

clock

闹钟

alarm clock

钟头

hour

一见钟情

love at first sight (idiom)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*toŋ

tsyowng

zhōng

bell


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 73.7947% of movies

460th most common character in movies

905th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

20

Simplified

Unicode

U+9418

Shuowen

“鐘,樂鐘也。秋分之音,物穜成。从金,童聲。古者垂作鐘。銿,鐘或从甬。”


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