轨

軌
guǐ
noun #12,251

Meanings

  1. 1 rail
  2. 2 track
  3. 3 course
  4. 4 orbit

Examples

HSK 4
Dìtiě guǐdào
subway tracks
HSK 7-9
Wèixīng chénggōng jìnrù le guǐdào.
The satellite successfully entered orbit.

Tips

usage
车 vehicle + 九 nine - vehicles following a set course

Components

radical
车 chē
vehicle; cart
Left 车 (simplified from 車) is the cart radical, indexing everything wheeled - 轮 wheel, 转 to turn, 辆 measure word for vehicles. The traditional 車 was a bird's-eye drawing of a chariot with axle and wheels; the simplified form keeps only the silhouette but the meaning still drives 轨's family of road and rail words.
phonetic
九 jiǔ
nine
Right 九 supplies the sound - jiǔ drifting to guǐ via the old k/g initial cluster, the same shift behind 究, 鸠, 仇 in their older readings. The 'nine' meaning is irrelevant; 九 is a pure sound-tag. The full picture: a cart with a phonetic marker, naming the cart's track - what we now read as 轨道, axis or orbit.

Stroke Order

轨 guǐ