Where do words 和字 come from?
Trace an English word back to Proto-Indo-European, or a Chinese character back to its oracle-bone form. Every page is an interactive graph — click any part of it to zoom in.
1,400 English entries · 2,400 Chinese entries · 1,650 verified explanations
Recently explained
- 億yìhundred million (100,000,000) (sometimes written as 1,0000,0000)
- 千言萬語qiānyánwànyǔthousands and thousands of words; to have much to say
- 車chēland vehicle; (specifically) car (Classifier: 輛／辆 m; 部 m c; 臺／台 m mn; 架 c; 頂／顶 mn; 張／张 mn-t; 乘 m)
- 百花齊放/paɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ xu̯ä⁵⁵ t͡ɕʰi³⁵ fɑŋ⁵¹/many different sorts of flowers bloom simultaneously
- 小朋友/ɕi̯ɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ pʰɤŋ³⁵ joʊ̯³/child; kid
- 行屍走肉/ɕiŋ³⁵ ʂɻ̩⁵⁵ t͡soʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ ɻoʊ̯⁵¹/walking corpse; walking dead; zombie
- 湖húlake; loch
- 分道揚鑣/fən⁵⁵ tɑʊ̯⁵¹ jɑŋ³⁵ pi̯ɑʊ̯⁵⁵/to part ways; to part company
- 本běnroot; stem
- 感同身受/kän²¹⁴⁻²¹ tʰʊŋ³⁵ ʂən⁵⁵ ʂoʊ̯⁵¹/to feel as if it has happened to oneself
- 日期/ɻ̩⁵¹ t͡ɕʰi⁵⁵/date; day
- 勇往直前/jʊŋ²¹⁴⁻³⁵ wɑŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʈ͡ʂɻ̩³⁵ t͡ɕʰi̯ɛn³⁵/to advance bravely and determinedly, without any fear
Chinese characters 漢字
- 的dìbright; clear; distinct
- 是shìthis; this thing
- 有yǒuto have; to possess (when a subject is present)
- 你nǐyou (the person spoken to or written to)
- 在zàito exist; to be present; to be alive
- 我wǒI; me; my
- 人rénman; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)
- 也yěParticle used at the end of copular constructions involving a nominal predicate; to be (although not grammatically a verb)
- 年niányear (in generic contexts)
- 對duìcorrect; true; right
- 他tāhe; him; she; her
- 這zhèthis; these
English words
- the/ðə/...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter.
- a/æ/The first letter of the English alphabet, written in the Latin script.
- a-/ə/Forming verbs with the sense away, up, on, out.
- -i/iː/Used to form adjectives, nouns, demonyms (describing people of a particular city, region or country) or genonyms (describing people of a particular tribe, clan or family) and the language spoken by these people.
- and/ˈænd/Used simply to connect two noun phrases, adjectives or adverbs.
- the-/θiː/god or deity
- -a/ə/Marks singular nouns, with a foundation in Greek or Latin, often implying femininity, especially when contrasted with words terminating in -us.
- -a-Connective interfix used in forming compounds, often no longer carrying a distinct meaning.
- to/t̪oː/A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.
- in-in, into, towards, within.
- to-Parting: forming verbs that involve cleaving, breaking, or sundering.
- -andUsed to form the present participle of verbs, equivalent to -ing.