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 · 1,632 verified explanations
Recently explained
- 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
- 大量/tä⁵¹⁻⁵³ li̯ɑŋ⁵¹/great amount of; large quantity of; large number of; a lot of
- 駭人聽聞/xaɪ̯⁵¹ ɻən³⁵ tʰiŋ⁵⁵ wən³⁵/shocking; horrifying; atrocious; terrible
- 要是/jɑʊ̯⁵¹ ʂɻ̩¹/if; in case
- 自相殘殺/t͡sɹ̩⁵¹ ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵⁵ t͡sʰän³⁵ ʂä⁵⁵/to slaughter each other; to massacre one another
- 他們tāmenthey; them
- 五顏六色/u²¹⁴⁻²¹ jɛn³⁵ li̯oʊ̯⁵¹⁻⁵³ sɤ⁵¹/multicoloured; colourful; variegated; of many colors
- 滿mǎnfull; filled; packed
- 一本正經/i⁵⁵⁻⁵¹ pən²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʈ͡ʂɤŋ⁵¹ t͡ɕiŋ⁵⁵/absolutely serious; dead earnest
- 雲yúncloud (Classifier: 片 m; 朵 m; 嚿 c)
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.