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⺮

zhúzìtóu
radical variant

Meanings

  1. 1 bamboo on top radical (variant of 竹)
  2. 2 top form of the bamboo radical, Kangxi #118

Tips

usage
Two paired flicks at the top of a character - bamboo. ⺮ tags brush-and-paper objects, tally-counting words, musical instruments, and anything historically made from bamboo culms. The pedagogical name zhúzìtóu literally means 'bamboo-character top'. Never written alone; the standalone form is 竹.
history
⺮ is the calligraphic compression of 竹, originally a pictograph of two drooping bamboo leaves. When the radical needs to sit above another component, the two leaf shapes flatten and align horizontally as a paired header, freeing vertical space for the rest of the character below.
usage
Bamboo-object cue: 笔 (writing brush), 笑 (laugh), 第 (ordinal marker - from tally counting), 答 (reply), 等 (wait/rank), 算 (calculate), 简 (simple - bamboo slip), 筷 (chopstick).

Radical

Bamboo Kangxi #118

Extremely productive, and almost always appears as the top variant ⺮ (zhúzìtóu). Tags everything once made of bamboo: writing tools (笔 brush, 籍 register), counting and measuring (算 calculate, 答 answer, 等 wait/grade), tubes and pipes (管, 筒), musical instruments (笛, 箫), furniture and baskets (椅, 篮, though 椅 actually uses wood). One of the strongest meaning clues in the script.

Forms
竹 zhú
Default 1 characters
⺮ zhúzìtóu
Top 75 characters

Used in

View all 75 →
Showing 6 of 75 · top form ⺮ of 竹
等 děng
to wait · etc.; and so on
算 suàn
to count; to calculate · to regard as; to count as
管 guǎn
pipe; tube · to manage; to be in charge of
第 dì
ordinal number prefix (1st, 2nd, 3rd...)
笑 xiào
to laugh; to smile
笔 bǐ
pen; writing brush · stroke (in writing characters)