耸 (sǒng): to tower

Meanings

1 to tower
2 to stand tall
3 to shrug (shoulders)
4 to excite
5 alarming (as in 危言耸听)

Characters

耸

sǒng

to tower; to shrug; to excite

Examples

摩天大楼高耸入云。

Mótiān dàlóu gāosǒngrùyún.

The skyscrapers tower up into the clouds.

他耸耸肩，表示不知道。

Tā sǒng sǒngjiān, biǎoshì bùzhī dào.

He shrugged his shoulders to indicate he didn't know.

Tips

usage

Key compounds: 高耸 (gāosǒng, towering), 耸立 (sǒnglì, to stand tall), 耸肩 (sǒngjiān, to shrug shoulders), 危言耸听 (wēi yán sǒng tīng, alarmist talk — lit. 'alarming words to scare listeners').

Components

radical

耳 ěr

ear

Bottom ear radical — pictograph of an ear with the outer ridge and lobe sketched in. The indexing radical, retained from the traditional form 聳. The ear connection survives most clearly in the 'shrug shoulders' and 'startle / make ears prick up' senses (耸肩 shrug, 危言耸听 alarming words that make ears stand on end).

phonetic

从 cóng

to follow; two people in line

Top 从 supplies the sound — cóng drifting to sǒng through a regular initial alternation visible in this phonetic family. 从 itself pictures two figures one behind the other, the second following the first. A faint semantic flavor: two people standing in a line gives a sense of vertical stacking, fitting 耸's 'to tower, stand tall' meaning.