noun

Meanings

  1. 1 a thoroughfare; a road branching in many directions; a crossroads

Examples

通衢车马川流不息
Tōngqú shàng chēmǎ chuānliúbùxī.
Carriages and horses streamed along the broad thoroughfare without pause.
Zhèjiāng de Qúzhōu yīn cǐ zì démíng.
Quzhou in Zhejiang takes its name from this character.

Tips

usage
is a literary word for a big road that branches in all directions. You will meet it in 通衢 ('a major thoroughfare') and as the city name 衢州 in Zhejiang.

Components

radical
xíng
to go; a road (split as enclosure)
is the road radical. It wraps the character: its left half is written first, then the phonetic, then its right half last. Originally a picture of a crossroads, it carries the core meaning 'road'.
phonetic
phonetic element (a startled hawk's stare)
sits inside the road radical and supplies the exact sound qú. It contributes no meaning here, only the pronunciation.

Stroke Order