拷

kǎo
#3,224 most
frequent character
to beat, to flog, to examine under torture

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

拷 has 扌 hand as its meaning part and 考 kǎo as its sound part. It first meant to beat or flog, then grew to torture. The sense to copy was borrowed for its sound, not from the hand picture.

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Homophones

考kǎo
test, examine
烤kǎo
to bake

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