旧 (jiù): old; used; worn

Meanings

1 old; used; worn
2 former; previous; past

Characters

旧

jiù

old; used; former

Examples

这件衣服太旧了。

Zhè jiàn yīfu tài jiù le.

This piece of clothing is too old/worn.

我把旧书捐了。

Wǒ bǎ jiù shū juān le.

I donated the old books.

他回到了旧地方。

Tā huídào le jiù dìfang.

He returned to the old place.

旧的不去，新的不来。

Jiù de bú qù, xīn de bù lái.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Tips

usage

旧 vs 老: 旧 means old in the sense of 'worn/outdated/former' (旧衣服 old clothes). 老 means old in age (老人 elderly person) or experienced.

usage

旧 is the opposite of 新 (new). Common pairs: 新旧 (new and old), 旧的 (the old one).

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

The sun radical indexes the character, drawn as a small framed box with a central crossbar. Originally 舊 carried 臼 (mortar) underneath; modern simplified silhouette has converged on the 日 pattern, giving learners a familiar anchor when reading 'old, former'.

ideograph

丨 gǔn

vertical stroke

An abstract vertical marker on the left, repurposed in the simplified form as a stand-in for the much fuller traditional left side of 舊 (an owl-and-mortar compound). It functions here as a shape placeholder rather than a semantic carrier.