籽 (zǐ): seed

Meanings

1 seed
2 pit (of a fruit)
3 small seeds of plants

Characters

籽

zǐ

seed / pit

Examples

她把西瓜籽吐了出来。

Tā bǎ xīguā zǐ tǔle chūlái.

She spat out the watermelon seeds.

农民把棉籽留下来明年再种。

Nóngmín bǎ mián zǐ liúxiàlái míngnián zài zhòng.

The farmers kept the cotton seeds to plant again next year.

Tips

usage

籽 specifically refers to small seeds within fruits and plants. Common compounds: 瓜籽 (melon seeds), 棉籽 (cottonseeds), 亚麻籽 (flaxseeds). Compare 种子 (seed in a broader/agricultural sense).

Components

radical

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Rice radical on the left - originally pictured grains scattered around a central stalk, four dots being separated kernels. Carries the meaning directly: 籽 is a seed-grain, the small hard kernel of a plant. Sits among 粒 grain, 粉 powder, 糊 paste, 粽 zongzi - all things that are or come from milled grain.

phonetic

子 zǐ

child; seed

Right side 子 supplies the sound directly - the same zǐ with no shift. 子 also doubles as a semantic reinforcement: it already means 'child, offspring, seed' on its own (think 种子 seed, 瓜子 melon seed), so the compound is almost tautological - grain-child for a seed. A rare case where phonetic and meaning point exactly the same way.