必

Translingual

Stroke order

Japanese stroke order

Etymology

Historical forms of the character 必
Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Etymology unclear – an ideogram or pictogram of some sort. Unrelated to 心, as bronze script makes clear, but in current form very similar.

Han character

必 (radical 61 心+1, 5 strokes, cangjie input 心竹 (PH), four-corner 3300₀, composition ⿻心丿)

1. surely, most certainly
2. must

Derived characters

• 宓 祕 秘 泌

See also

• 心

References

• KangXi: page 375, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 10299
• Dae Jaweon: page 701, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2267, character 2
• Unihan data for U+5FC5

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		必

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): bì (bi⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄧˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): bit¹
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): pit
• Min Nan (POJ): pit

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: bì
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄧˋ
    • Wade-Giles: pih⁴
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: bih
    • IPA ^(key): /pi⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: bit¹
    • Yale: bīt
    • Cantonese Pinyin: bit⁷
    • IPA ^(key): /piːt̚⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: pit
    • Hakka Romanization System: bid`
    • Hagfa Pinyim: bid⁵
    • IPA: /pit̚²/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pit
    • Tâi-lô: pit
    • Phofsit Daibuun: pid
    • IPA (Taipei): /pit̚³²/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /pit̚³²/

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• Dialectal data▼

Variety	Location	edit 必
Mandarin	Beijing	/pi⁵¹/
	Harbin	/pi⁵³/
	Tianjin	/pi⁴⁵/
	Jinan	/pi⁵⁵/
	Qingdao	/pi⁵⁵/
	Zhengzhou	/pi⁴²/
	Xi'an	/pi²¹/
	Xining	/pji⁴⁴/
	Yinchuan	/pi¹³/
	Lanzhou	/pi¹³/
	Ürümqi	/pi²¹³/
	Wuhan	/pi²¹³/
	Chengdu	/pi³¹/
	Guiyang	/pi²¹/
	Kunming	/pi³¹/
	Nanjing	/piʔ⁵/
	Hefei	/piəʔ⁵/
Jin	Taiyuan	/piəʔ²/
	Pingyao	/piʌʔ¹³/
	Hohhot	/piəʔ⁴³/
Wu	Shanghai	/piɪʔ⁵/
	Suzhou	/piəʔ⁵/
	Hangzhou	/piəʔ⁵/
	Wenzhou	/pi²¹³/
Hui	Shexian	/piʔ²¹/
	Tunxi	/pi⁵/
Xiang	Changsha	/pi²⁴/
	Xiangtan	/pi²⁴/
Gan	Nanchang	/piʔ⁵/
Hakka	Meixian	/pit̚¹/
	Taoyuan	/pit̚²²/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/pit̚⁵/
	Nanning	/pit̚⁵⁵/
	Hong Kong	/pit̚⁵/
Min	Xiamen (Min Nan)	/pit̚³²/
	Fuzhou (Min Dong)	/pɛiʔ²³/
	Jian'ou (Min Bei)	/pi²⁴/
	Shantou (Min Nan)	/pik̚²/
	Haikou (Min Nan)	/ʔbit̚⁵/

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• Middle Chinese: /piɪt̚/▼

Rime
Character	必
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	幫 (1)
Final (韻)	質 (48)
Tone (調)	Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	卑吉切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/piɪt̚/
Pan Wuyun	/pit̚/
Shao Rongfen	/pjet̚/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/pit̚/
Li Rong	/piĕt̚/
Wang Li	/pĭĕt̚/
Bernard Karlgren	/pi̯ĕt̚/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	bi

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*pi[t]/

  (Zhengzhang): /*pliɡ/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	必
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	bì
Middle Chinese	‹ pjit ›
Old Chinese	/*pi[t]/
English	necessarily
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	必
Reading #	1/1
No.	568
Phonetic component	必
Rime group	質
Rime subdivision	2
Corresponding MC rime	必
Old Chinese	/*pliɡ/

Definitions

必

1. must

   耶和華神對蛇說，你既作了這事，就必受咒詛，比一切的牲畜野獸更甚。你必用肚子行走，終身吃土。 [MSC, trad.]

   耶和华神对蛇说，你既作了这事，就必受咒诅，比一切的牲畜野兽更甚。你必用肚子行走，终身吃土。 [MSC, simp.]

   Yēhéhuá shén duì shé shuō, nǐ jì zuò le zhè shì, jiù bì shòu zhòuzǔ, bǐ yīqiè de shēngchù yĕshòu gèng shén. Nǐ bì yòng dùzi xíng zǒu, zhōngshēn chī tǔ. [Pinyin]

   And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed [must receive a curse] above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go [you must use your belly to go], and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

Compounds

• 必須／必须 (bìxū)

References

• “Entry #13595”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

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Japanese

Kanji

必

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Readings

• Goon: ひち (hichi)
• Kan’on: ひつ (hitsu)
• Kun: かならず (必ず, kanarazu)
• Nanori: さだ (sada), さだむ (sadamu)

Compounds

必ず (kanarazu): necessarily, certainly 必ずしも (kanarazushimo): not always 必携 (hikkei): handbook, manual 必死 (hisshi): frantic, desperate 必需 (hitsuju): necessary 必需品 (hitsujuhin): necessities

必殺 (hissatsu): definite kill 必修 (hisshū): required (subject) 必勝 (hisshō): certain victory 必須 (hissu): indispensable, required 必須条件 (hissu jōken): essential condition 必然 (hitsuzen): inevitable, necessary 必然的 (hitsuzenteki): inevitable, necessary

必着 (hitchaku): must arrive 必読 (hitsudoku): should be read by all 必要 (hitsuyō): necessity, need 必要性 (hitsuyōsei): necessity 必読書 (hitsudokusho): required reading 不必要 (fuhitsuyō): unnecessary 必死になって (hisshi ni natte): desperately 必見 (hikken): a must-see

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Korean

Hanja

必 • ‎(pil) (hangeul 필, revised pil, McCune-Reischauer p'il, Yale phil)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

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Vietnamese

Han character

必 (tất, ắt)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.