妻

qī
#1,074 most
frequent character
wife

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

妻 is a picture of a hand pulling a woman's hair, showing a woman being taken. That gives the first meaning, wife. Read qì, it grew to mean to get married or take a wife.

Drawn as: hand pulling woman's hair

妻 as a component in other characters

sound4 characters
凄萋悽淒

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Same Characters, Different Readings

妻qì
to marry off (a daughter)

Homophones

HSK 1
七qī
seven, 7
期qī
period, time, term, expect
漆qī
. paint, . to paint
沏qī
to steep
欺qī
to take unfair advantage of

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