zōng / zèng
verb #43,002

Meanings

  1. 1 to synthesize; to bring together; to put under one heading

Examples

Lǎoshī ràng wǒmen zōnghé gèzhǒng xìnxī.
The teacher had us put together the various pieces of information.
Zhè bù zōngyì jiémù xiànzài hěn shòu huānyíng.
This variety show is very popular right now.

Tips

usage
In modern Chinese the zōng reading is a bound morpheme meaning 'to pull together': 综合 (comprehensive; to integrate), 综述 (a survey article), 错综复杂 (intricate and tangled). It is also the short form behind the entertainment word 综艺 (variety show). The zèng reading is the weaver's term 'heddle'.
memory
Silk radical plus (the clan shrine, the central gathering point): a heddle is the one cord that gathers and organizes every warp thread, bringing the threads together under one head, exactly what 'to synthesize' means.

Components

radical
silk thread (radical form of 糸)
Left silk radical, the simplified side form of , a twisted skein cut to three strokes. It indexes in the thread-and-weaving family: 线 line, to weave, to embroider. The character names the heddle of a loom, the cord that lifts warp threads, anchoring the meaning right at the loom.
phonetic
zōng
ancestor; principal (here phonetic)
Right side supplies the sound directly: zōng. The same phonetic powers palm, trace, mane, zongzi. itself is a roof over an altar, the ancestral shrine and a clan's gathering point, which faintly fits a heddle as the thread that organizes all the warp into one pattern.

Stroke Order

zōng