尋
xún HSK7

seek

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approved by inralback19 · Dec 5, 2025, 01:00 PM

ruler

Changed fields: hint

Original meaning: measure of length

Pictograph of two outstretched arms measuring length using a ruler. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 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
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzimsə-l[ə]m (< *-um ?)warm up
zimsə-l[ə]m measure of 8 chǐ 尺

說文解字

《說文》：“尋，繹理也。从工，从口，从又，从寸。工、口，亂也；又、寸，分理之。彡聲。此與同意。度人之兩臂為尋，八尺也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)