敌

敵
dí
#523 most
frequent character
(bound form) enemy

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

敌 is a short form of 敵, which showed a hand grasping a whip and first meant 'enemy'. 舌 is an empty part, short for 啇, the old sound part. The meaning then grew to 'hostile' and 'equal; match'.

Drawn as: hand grasping whip

Ask DeepSeek

Homophones

的dí
really and truly
迪dí
to enlighten

Your word lists

Sign in to add this word to your private lists.