龟 (guī): turtle; tortoise

Measure Word

一只龟 zhī

Meanings

1 turtle; tortoise

Characters

龟

guī

turtle; tortoise

Examples

这只龟已经活了一百多年了。

Zhè zhī guī yǐjīng huó le yìbǎi duō nián le.

This turtle has lived for over a hundred years.

龟的寿命非常长。

Guī de shòumìng fēicháng cháng.

Turtles have very long lifespans.

小孩子在池塘边看龟。

Xiǎoháizi zài chítáng biān kàn guī.

The children are watching turtles by the pond.

Tips

culture

In Chinese culture the turtle symbolises longevity and wisdom. But 龟 also carries vulgar slang: 乌龟 can imply a cuckold, and 缩头乌龟 means a coward who hides. Context matters greatly.

mistakes

龟 is normally guī (turtle). In the word 龟裂 (to crack, to become fissured) it is read jūn. A third reading qiū survives only in the ancient Silk Road place name 龟兹 (Kucha).

Components

pictograph

龟 guī

turtle; tortoise

龟 is a self-radical pictograph of a turtle seen from the side: the top stroke is the head and front leg, the central grid is the patterned shell, and the hooked bottom stroke is the tail. Heavily simplified from traditional 龜, which kept a far more elaborate side view, but the modern silhouette still preserves the basic turtle shape. As Kangxi radical 213 it heads the very small turtle family.

Radical

Turtle Kangxi #213

A near-self-contained radical: 龟 indexes itself plus a handful of rare sea-turtle derivatives. Pictograph of a turtle in side view, with head, legs, shell and tail visible in the original graph. The 'crack' reading jūn (as in 龟裂) borrows the tortoise-shell pattern of fissures.