針 — Edit Snapshot — Chinese Character Wiki

zhēn HSK4

needle

approved by Marcus Ngai · Mar 3, 2026, 01:30 AM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Mar 3, 2026, 01:30 AM

釒

Changed fields: hint

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound.

Components

釒 Meaning component

jīn metal

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

針 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
針 *t.[k]əm
十 *t.[g]əp

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyim	t.[k]əm	needle