漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
冬: winter
夂 and 冫 carry the meaning
Oracle bone · Shang Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
トウtou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 冬期とうきwinter term
- 初冬しょとうearly winter
- 冬至とうじwinter solstice
- 冬眠とうみんhibernation
- 越冬するえっとうするpass the winter
ふゆfuyu · kun'yomi · on its own
- 冬ふゆwinter
- 冬学期ふゆがっきwinter semester
- 真冬まふゆmidwinter
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Unclear. One hypothesis derives 冬 from the antenna-like upper part of an oracle-bone graph formerly read as 鼉 (“crocodilian”) (e.g. 合集 6163反, 7405反), but reinterpreted as 螽 (“katydid; locust”).
Source: Wiktionary, 冬 (rev. 93653367), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Ice (冫) + walking slowly (夊). The season where the world turns to "ice" and life moves "slowly" through the snow.”
Connections
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · dōng
Same form: 冬 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 冬 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 冬 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin dōng most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.