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宗

zōng
noun HSK 7-9 #4,594

Meanings

  1. 1 school of thought; sect
  2. 2 ancestor; clan
  3. 3 purpose; aim

Examples

他是这个宗教的信徒。
Tā shì zhège zōngjiào de xìntú.
He is a follower of this religion.
这件事的宗旨是帮助穷人。
Zhè jiàn shì de zōngzhǐ shì bāngzhù qióngrén.
The purpose of this project is to help the poor.

Tips

usage
宗 appears in 宗教 (religion), 宗旨 (purpose/aim), 祖宗 (ancestors). As a measure word, 一宗案件 means 'a case'.

Components

radical
宀 mián
roof; house
Roof radical at the top - a pictograph of a sloped house cover. It indexes 宗 in the dwelling-and-clan family alongside 家 home, 室 room, 安 peace, 守 to guard. The roof anchors a domestic ritual scene: under the family roof sits the altar.
semantic
示 shì
altar; to show
Underneath sits 示 'altar', originally a pictograph of a stone slab where offerings were laid. Roof + altar = the room where ancestors are worshipped. From this concrete image grew every modern sense: ancestral clan (祖宗), school of thought (宗派), purpose (宗旨), religion (宗教). 宗 is a compound ideograph, not phonetic.

Stroke Order

宗 zōng