zhǐ HSK3

(foot), stop

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approved by Prismcool · Mar 30, 2026, 02:23 AM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Mar 30, 2026, 02:23 AM

Not an edit but I removed "left" from the description because the graph 止 can be either oriented left or right but it still conveyed the original meaning.

Original meaning: foot

Pictograph of a foot. The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "stop".

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
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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-SagarttsyiXtəʔ foot; stop

說文解字

《說文》:“止,下基也。象艸木出有址,故以止為足。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica