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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

類

lèi
class; group; kind; category
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 頁
  • 19 strokes
  • 类

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ruːls, *ruds): phonetic 頪 (OC *roːds) + semantic 犬.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *rus (“bone”) (STEDT).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*rus “bone”
  • soundChinese頪 “Fresh/vivid white appearance (according to Xu Shen, 鮮白皃; otherwise, the meaning is difficult to kno…”
    • ideaChinese米 “hulled or husked uncooked rice (Classifier: 粒 m c mn; 顆／颗 m)”
    • ideaChinese頁 “sheet (of paper)”
      • componentChinese首 “head”
      • componentChinese卩 “kneeling person”
  • meaningChinese犬 “dog”

Meanings

character
  1. class; group; kind; category
  2. Classifier for types of things: type, kind, sort
  3. class

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

類：種類相似，唯犬爲甚。从犬頪聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 由許多相同或相似的人事物綜合歸屬成的種別。 例：敗類、菌類、人類
  2. 相像。 例：類似、相類、畫虎類犬
  3. 大概、大抵。 例：類皆如此

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

How 類 was written 字形演變

  1. 類 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 類 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 類 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 類