漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
走: run
- 土earth(form)
- 龰(form)
土 and 龰 are drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
ソウsou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 滑走路かっそうろrunway
- 御馳走するごちそうするtreat someone to a meal
- 競走するきょうそうするrace
- 逃走するとうそうするescape [v.i.]
- 脱走するだっそうするescape [v.i.]
はしるhashiru · kun'yomi · on its own
- 走るはしるrun
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 師走しわすtraditional name for December
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A running man. An additional 止 (“foot”) was added later.
Source: Wiktionary, 走 (rev. 91979180), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Soil/earth (土) + foot (𠮛) = imagine feet moving quickly and kicking up dust as they race across the ground.”
Connections
Also built on 龰
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · zǒu
Same form: 走 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 走 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 走 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin zǒu most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.