漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
以: by means of, because
Also: in view of, compared with
人 carries the meaning · 丶 is drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
One reading, and the words that use it
イi · on'yomi · in compounds
- 以上いじょうmore than
- 以下いかless than
- 以来いらいsince
- 以外いがいexcept
- 以内いないwithin, less than
- 以降いこうhereafter, thereafter
- 以心伝心いしんでんしんtacit understanding
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 以ってもってwith, by means of
Also read もって, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A person (人) carrying something. It is often simplified to 㠯 in pre-Qin ancient scripts.
Source: Wiktionary, 以 (rev. 93768254), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Two lines leaning on each other for support—that's 人! It shows how humans are not meant to stand alone; we lean on one another for strength and companionship.”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · yǐ
Same form: 以 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 以 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 以 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin yǐ most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.