子
Meanings · zǐ
- son
- child
- seed
- egg
- small thing
- 1st earthly branch: 11 p.m.–1 a.m., midnight, 11th solar month (7th December to 5th January), year of the rat
- viscount, fourth of five orders of nobility 五等爵位 wǔ děng jué wèi
- ancient Chinese compass point: 0° (north)
- subsidiary; subordinate; (prefix) sub-
Meanings · zi
- noun suffix, as in 椅子 yǐ zi "chair"
Characters in this entry
- 子
- zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
3 · zi3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
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Sentences in context
Exact source-spelling matches. Open the reader for dictionary lookups, construction notes and related examples. Occurrence does not establish a particular dictionary sense.
Read this spelling in Classical texts
Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 23 senses · 2 Cantonese readings
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
ci4 · zi2
Cantonese word readings for 子. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
character · Etymology 1
- child; offspring; descendant
- son
- (Christianity) the Son
- (suffix) person
- (literary, respectful) master; teacher; if just one 子 is shown in Classical Chinese, it should mean Confucius.
- (archaic) A respectful title for teachers, usually attached after their surnames.
- (archaic, literary, polite) you
- (alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 籽 (zǐ, “seed”); also its second-round simplified form.
- egg
- young; tender; small
- (figurative) Prefix attached to nouns, denoting "a part of", "belonging to" or "individual"; sub-.
- (astrology) First earthly branch: rat in the Chinese zodiac, 11th solar month, midnight (11:00 pm to 1:00 am)
- (historical) viscount (fourth of five ranks of Chinese aristocracy under the Zhou dynasty)
- (physics, biology) -on
- a surname
- (Southern Min) grain-like object; particle; granule
- (Southern Min, music) rhythm
- (Southern Min) Classifier for small, round objects: granule, grain, particle, piece
character · Etymology 1
- Suffix: — Used to nominalize.
- Suffix: — (colloquial) Used in some classifiers.
character · Etymology 1
- (Hokkien) small, round object
- (Xiamen and Quanzhou Hokkien) Classifier for small objects.
- (Zhangzhou and Taiwanese Hokkien) Classifier for bananas.
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
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