仅 (jǐn): only

Meanings

1 only
2 merely
3 barely

Characters

仅

jǐn

only; merely; barely

Contains 亻 (person) — emphasizes limitation, as if only one person.

Examples

这件事仅他一个人知道。

Zhè jiàn shì jǐn tā yī gè rén zhīdào.

Only he alone knows about this matter.

仅这一次，下不为例。

Jǐn zhè yī cì, xiàbùwéilì.

Only this once; don't let it happen again.

距离考试仅剩三天。

Jùlí kǎoshì jǐn shèng sān tiān.

There are merely three days left until the exam.

Tips

usage

仅 is more formal and literary than 只. In everyday speech, 只 is more common. 仅 appears more often in writing and formal contexts.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical)

Left radical 亻 is the side-form of 人 (person), a slanted stroke and a leg. Indexing radical for 仅. Anchors a vast family of human-related characters: 你 (you), 他 (he), 们 (plural), 住 (live), 做 (do), 但 (but).

phonetic

又 yòu

right hand (phonetic)

Right component 又 (a right hand) — the simplified version's chosen sound marker. The traditional form 僅 had the much more elaborate 堇 here; the 1956 reform replaced it with 又 to cut the stroke count drastically. The phonetic match is loose (yòu → jǐn is heavy drift); 又 was chosen for brevity rather than sound.