知

zhī
#123 most
frequent character
to know, to be aware

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

知 contains 口 mouth, presumably because knowledge was passed on by speaking. 矢 shǐ supplies the sound. The first meaning was 'knowledge', and from there it grew to mean 'to know'.

Drawn as: mouth

知 as a component in other characters

meaning2 characters
智痴
sound5 characters
智痴蜘踟椥

Ask DeepSeek

Homophones

HSK 4
之zhī
(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的)
HSK 5
支zhī
to support, to sustain, to erect
HSK 6
枝zhī
branch, classifier for sticks, rods, pencils etc
织zhī
knit, weave
氏zhī
see 月氏[Yue4 zhi1] and 閼氏|阏氏[yan1 zhi1]

Your word lists

Sign in to add this word to your private lists.