重 (zhòng) · heavy, weighty, important

Meanings

1 heavy
2 weighty
3 important
4 serious; grave

Characters

重

zhòng

heavy; important; serious

Examples

HSK 3

这个箱子太重了。

Zhège xiāngzi tài zhòng le.

This suitcase is too heavy.

HSK 3

医生说他病得很重，需要住院。

Yīshēng shuō tā bìng de hěn zhòng, xūyào zhùyuàn.

The doctor said he is very seriously ill and needs to be hospitalized.

HSK 4

这份工作对我来说非常重要。

Zhè fèn gōngzuò duì wǒ lái shuō fēicháng zhòngyào.

This job is extremely important to me.

Tips

usage

As zhòng, 重 covers a broad scale: physical weight (a heavy 箱子), abstract importance (重要, important), and severity (病得很重, gravely ill). The thread is 'carries significant weight,' literally or figuratively.

mistakes

重 has two readings. zhòng = heavy / important (重要, 体重). chóng = again / layer (重新, 重复). When in doubt, ask: does it mean 'heavy/serious' (zhòng) or 'redo/another layer' (chóng)?

Components

radical

里 lǐ

village; mile; inside

Lower indexing 里 radical - the modern filing component. Visually 里 shows 田 (field) over 土 (earth), an inhabited plot of ground. In 重 it's not historically productive (the original was 東+土), but the modern shape is filed under 里 for indexing convenience. Other 里-filed chars: 量 (measure), 野 (field/wild).

semantic

千 qiān

thousand

Top 千 - written as a 2-stroke contraction here (standalone 千 has 3 strokes; the bottom horizontal merges into 里 below in this overlay). Strict etymology disagrees: oracle-bone 重 shows a person carrying a heavy bundle over ground, and the modern shape is a fusion. 千 is a visual reanalysis, not historical, but pedagogically useful for indexing.