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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

回

huí
to turn around
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 囗
  • 6 strokes
  • 噲
  • 哙

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Origin

Etymology 1

Pictogram (象形): rotation (originally a spiral).

Etymology 2

From earlier name 回回 (huíhuí), variant of 回鶻／回鹘 (Huíhú), from either Old Uyghur 𐽳𐽶𐽲𐽳𐽾 (wyqwr) or Old Turkic 𐰆𐰖𐰍𐰺 (uygur). Doublet of 維吾爾／维吾尔 (Wéiwú'ěr).

Etymology 4

For pronunciation and definitions of 回 – see 迴 (“to revolve; to rotate; to avoid; etc.”).

(This character is the simplified and variant form of 迴).

Notes:

Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • derivedOld Uyghur𐽳𐽶𐽲𐽳𐽾
    • derivedOld Turkic𐰆𐰖𐰍𐰺

Words built on it: 回答, 回到, 回家, 回去, 返回, 回收

Meanings

character
  1. to turn around
  2. to return; to go back
  3. Used after a verb to indicate a movement back to the original place; back
  4. to circle; to wind
  5. to reply; to respond; to answer
  6. to decline; to refuse

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

回：轉也。从囗，中象回轉形。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 調轉。 例：回首、回頭、回心轉意
  2. 返、歸。指重返原來的地方。 例：回國、回家、一去不回
  3. 答覆對方的言詞或動作。 例：回答、回敬、回信
  4. 謝絕、辭去。 例：回絕、回掉
  5. 放在動詞後面，表示人或事物隨著動作重返原處。 例：找回、領回、放回
  6. 中國少數民族之一。主要分布在大陸地區新疆、遼寧、青海、甘肅、寧夏、河北等地。以信奉回教為主。

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 回 was written 字形演變

  1. 回 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 回 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 回 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 回 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 回 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 回 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 回