gāo high

Pictograph of a tall building.

Components

Iconic component
jīng capital city

Pictograph of a tall building.

kǒu, kou mouth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (3 of 4 verified)

Remnant (2)

Simplified (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkawCə.[k]ˤaw high, tall

說文解字

《說文》:“高,崇也,象臺觀高之形。从冂、口,與倉舍同意。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.448
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

level

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components

Meaning component
silk

is a component form of .

Sound component
extend

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

zhí duty

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components

Meaning component
ěr ear
Sound component
zhǐ, zhī only

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

chēng, chèn call

Original meaning: measure weight

Simplified form of . Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "measure weight". The meaning later shifted to "lift", "raise", "praise", "reputation", and "call".

Components

Meaning component
grain stalk

Alludes to measuring the weight of grain.

Simplified component
ěr you

Shorthand for the component in the traditional character .

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode