综

綜
zōng / zèng
verb #43,002

Meanings

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

Examples

HSK 5
Lǎoshī ràng wǒmen zōnghé gèzhǒng xìnxī.
The teacher had us put together the various pieces of information.
HSK 5
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 纟 plus 宗 (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
纟 sī
silk thread (radical form of 糸)
Left silk radical, the simplified side form of 糸, a twisted skein cut to three strokes. It indexes 综 in the thread-and-weaving family: 线 line, 织 to weave, 绣 to embroider. The character names the heddle of a loom, the cord that lifts warp threads, anchoring the meaning right at the loom.
phonetic
宗 zōng
ancestor; principal
Right side 宗 supplies the sound directly: zōng. The same phonetic powers 棕 palm, 踪 trace, 鬃 mane, 粽 zongzi. 宗 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

综 zōng