象形字

xiàngxíngzì
noun #60,829

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 pictograph
  2. 2 pictographic character

Examples

HSK 1
“日”和“月”都是象形字。
" Rì " hé " yuè " dōu shì xiàngxíngzì.
The characters for 'sun' and 'moon' are both pictographs.
HSK 4
Hěnduō xiàngxíngzì jīngguò jǐqiān nián de biànhuà, yǐjing kànbuchū yuánlái huà de shì shénme le.
After thousands of years of change, you can no longer tell what many pictographs originally drew.

Tips

usage
A 象形字 is one character that draws its object, like 山 or 木; 象形文字 is a whole pictographic script, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs. Only a small share of characters are pictographs, but many of them return as the meaning parts of the far larger group of 形声字.

Stroke Order

象 xiàng
形 xíng
字 zì