椎

zhuī
#2,450 most
frequent character
(bound form) vertebra

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

椎 combines 木, wood, with 隹 zhuī as the sound part, sharing the rhyme. Wood points to the first reading's meaning, an instrument for striking, which grew to hammer or mallet. Read zhuī, the meaning 'vertebrae' was borrowed for the sound, and from it came 'spine'.

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Same Characters, Different Readings

椎chuí
hammer, to hammer

Homophones

追zhuī
run after

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