整 (zhěng): whole; entire; complete

Meanings

1 whole; entire; complete
2 neat; tidy
3 to put in order; to fix

Characters

整

zhěng

whole; neat; to put in order

Examples

我等了整整一天。

Wǒ děng le zhěngzhěng yī tiān.

I waited a whole day.

整个城市都很安静。

Zhěnggè chéngshì dōu hěn ānjìng.

The entire city is very quiet.

现在是三点整。

Xiànzài shì sān diǎn zhěng.

It's exactly three o'clock.

把房间整理一下。

Bǎ fángjiān zhěnglǐ yīxià.

Tidy up the room.

Tips

usage

整个 = the whole/entire. 整理 = to tidy up/organize. 整整 = a full/complete (emphasizes completeness): 整整三年 (a full three years).

grammar

When telling time, 整 means 'sharp/exactly': 八点整 (8 o'clock sharp). It goes after the time.

Components

radical

攵 pū

tap; strike (radical form)

Top-right rap radical — the abbreviated form of 攴 (a hand holding a stick). Kangxi #66, the indexing radical of 整. Adds the action sense: tapping things into place, knocking bundles into shape. Same radical anchors 故 (cause), 教 (teach), 改 (reform), 收 (gather) — verbs of active intervention.

semantic

束 shù

bundle; tie up

Top-left 束 — a pictograph of a bundle being tied with a cord through the middle (a 木-tree shape with a 口 binding band around it). Carries the literal meaning: things being tied into tidy bundles, the act 整 names. Phonetically also a partial sound source (shù → zhěng, regular palatal-to-retroflex drift).

semantic

正 zhèng

upright; correct

Bottom 正 — straight, upright, correct. Reinforces the meaning: bundles tapped into proper alignment. Also nudges the sound closer to zhěng (regular tone shift). The full picture is 'tie things into bundles (束) + tap them with a stick (攵) + make them straight (正)' = neaten up, set in order.