疑
yí HSK4

doubt

← Back to history
approved by inralback19 · Feb 11, 2026, 09:06 PM · Reviewed by inralback19 on Feb 11, 2026, 09:06 PM

Rollback xYtW45wJQGnZWHHDb

Changed fields: hint, isVerified, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages

Pictograph of a person holding onto a staff, looking to the side with his mouth open, doubtful of which direction to go. The 龰 (foot) component was added later to indicate movement, and the 子 component was added to hint at the sound.

Components

口
口 Iconic component

Here depicts the head of a person with an open mouth looking to the side.

◎
◎ Iconic component

Depicts a person standing up holding onto a staff.

子
子 Sound component

The pronunciation of 子 was similar to 疑 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.

龰
龰 Meaning component

龰 is a component form of 止.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngi[ŋ](r)ə (< uvular)doubt

說文解字

《說文》：“疑，惑也。从子、止、匕，矢聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)