十

Meanings

Etymology

In oracle-bone script, 十 is mostly written as a single vertical stroke; a few examples add a central dot, as in HJ 9204. Later forms added 一, making a cross. One view identifies it as the original graph of 針 (OC *kim, “needle”), later borrowed for 十 (OC *gip, “ten”). See 針 (OC *kim). Another view sees it as a knotted-cord or thread-joining form, cf. 什 (OC *gip) (三蒼／三苍 glosses it as “to gather”), 揖 (*ʔip) (the 詩／诗 (shī) commentary glosses 揖揖 as “gathered”), 緝／缉 (jī) (“to join hemp fibres into thread”), and 輯／辑 (jí) (glossed in 說文／说文 (Shuōwén) as “to collect” and in 爾雅／尔雅 (Ěryǎ) as “to harmonize”). Unrelated to 支, 卖, 直, 真, 德, 甫, and 七, but related to the original form of 丈. From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sV-ɢip.

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Stroke order

Components

Components from cjk-decomp · MIT

Example sentences

• 我要十個盤子。

  I want ten plates.

• 大約十點鐘嗎？

  Is it about ten o'clock?

• 十間房屋被燒毀了。

  Ten houses were burned down.

• 这小男孩能数到十。

  The boy can count to ten.

• 已經過了十點鐘了。

  It's already past ten o'clock.

• 最晚十點前來這裡。

  Come here by ten at the latest.

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More examples & usage (AI)

Derived terms

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Related words