揆

kuí
verb #69,335

Meanings

  1. 1 to estimate; to gauge; to assess
  2. 2 a chief minister; the premier

Examples

HSK 7-9
Chéngyǔ rúchū-yìkuí yìsi shì dōu hé tóngyī gè zhǔnzé.
The phrase 'all by the same measure' means everything follows one consistent principle.

Tips

history
揆 is literary and rarely used alone. The 'estimate' sense survives in 揆度 ('to weigh up') and 揆情度理 ('to judge by reason'); the 'premier' sense survives in 阁揆 ('the cabinet head'). The everyday word for estimate is 估计.
register
Literary and formal - classical prose, idioms, and political vocabulary, not everyday speech.

Components

radical
扌 shǒu
hand
扌 is the hand radical 手 in left-side form, evoking measuring or handling - to size something up by hand.
phonetic
癸 guǐ
tenth heavenly stem
癸 supplies the sound (drifted to kuí). The same phonetic appears in 葵 (sunflower) and 睽 (estranged, in 众目睽睽).

Stroke Order

揆 kuí