自

Mandarin · pinyin zì

Meanings

  1. (bound form) self; oneself
  2. from; since
  3. naturally; as a matter of course
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Characters in this entry

自
zì · self, private, personal; from; Kangxi radical 132
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4 · zi4

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1character link15same-tone records
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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zi6

Cantonese word readings for 自. 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

  1. self, oneself; one's own
  2. certainly, of course
  3. personally
  4. since; from
  5. (swimming) short for 自由泳 (zìyóuyǒng, “freestyle”)

character

  1. only used in 潮州音樂——自己顧自己/潮州音乐——自己顾自己

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack