手

See also 爪, and 寸

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Alternative forms

• 扌 (when used as a left Chinese radical)

Etymology

Pictogram (象形) – hand and fingers. The top stroke is the bent over middle finger, while the horizontal strokes are each two fingers. Compare 爪, 寸, 九.

Note that unlike the other hand/claw characters, 手 has consistently had five fingers: a mammalian/human hand, as opposed to the three digits often found in the others.

Compare also 止 (“foot”), derived from a footprint, originally composed of 3 toes and a sole.

Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Han character

手 (radical 64 手+0, 4 strokes, cangjie input 手 (Q), four-corner 2050₀)

1. hand

References

• KangXi: page 416, character 28
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 11768
• Dae Jaweon: page 762, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 1824, character 1
• Unihan data for U+624B

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Cantonese

Hanzi

手 (Yale sau2)

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Hakka

Hanzi

手 (POJ shíu, Guangdong shu³, shiu³ [Meixian], s'iu³ [Hailu, Kwangtung], su³ [Siyan], Hagfa Pinyim su3)

References

• CCDICT (Chineselanguage.org)
• Academia Sinica - Hakka-English Dictionary
• Lau, Chun-fat. Hakka Pinyin Dictionary (Chinese). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1997 (Chinese IME supplement) ISBN 962-201-750-9.

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Japanese

Noun

手 (hiragana て, romaji te)

1. a hand
2. a handle
3. a paw; a foreleg
4. (board games) a move; a play

Kanji

手 (grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: しゅ(shu), しゅう (shū)
• Kun: て (te), てずから (tezukara)
• Other info:

Compounds

手紙 手袋

相手 切手

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Korean

Hanja

手
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 수 (revised: su, McCune-Reischauer: su, Yale: swu)

• Name (hangeul): 손()

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Mandarin

simpl. and trad.
手

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Picture dictionary

手掌

手腕

大拇指

食指

中指

无名指

小指

Click on labels in the image

胳膊

Hanzi

手 (pinyin shǒu (shou3), Wade-Giles shou³)

Noun

手 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin shǒu)

1. hand

Compounds

手巴掌、手巴掌儿 手把手、手把手儿 手板 手板儿 手板係肉，手背又係肉、手板係肉，手背亦係肉 手板眼見工夫 手板堂 手膀 手背 手笔、手筆 手臂 手边、手边儿 手表 手柄 手脖子 手不释卷 手册 手抄 手创 手戳、手戳儿 手搭凉棚、手打遮阳 手到病除 手到擒来 手底下 手电、手电筒 手段 手法 手风琴 手感 手高手低 手稿 手工 手工业 手工艺 手硬 手鈪 手黑 手狠 手机 手疾眼快 手记 手迹 手简 手脚 手巾 手紧 手劲、手劲儿 手卷 手绢、手绢儿 手铐 手扣 手快 手辣 手雷 手力 手里 手令 手榴弹 手笼

手炉 手慢 手忙脚乱 手面 手模 手帕 手气 手枪 手巧 手勤 手轻 手球 手软、手軟 手松 手生 手势、手勢 手书 手术、手術 手提 手谈 手套、手套儿 手腕子 手无寸铁 手无缚鸡之力 手舞足蹈 手下 手下人 手相 手携手 手写 手写体 手心 手续、手續 手癣 手眼 手痒 手艺 手淫 手印、手印儿 手语、手語 手谕 手足 手足无措 手札 手闸 手掌 手杖 手纸 手指 手指甲 手指头 手指头肚儿 手指字母 手制动 手重 手肘 手拙 手镯 佛手瓜 捕手

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Middle Chinese

Han character

手 (*shiǒu)

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Vietnamese

Han character

手 (trì, thủ)

1. hand