斗

鬥
dòu
#580 most
frequent character
to fight, to struggle, to condemn

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

斗 is a picture of a spoon used for serving alcohol. That was its first meaning. Under reading dòu, the sense “to struggle” or “fight bare-handed” was borrowed by sound, and from it came compete, make animals fight, and denounce. Under dǒu, it grew into a unit of volume and a dipper-shaped object.

Drawn as: spoon for alcohol

斗 as a component in other characters

meaning8 characters
sound3 characters
picture1 character

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