chēng

Traditional: 称

#1479 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to call, to name, to weigh

Word origin

Originally a pictograph of a hand lifting and balancing a load, later written with the 禾 (grain) radical, giving both the sense of weighing and of naming.

Origin
pictograph
Root
禾 (hé, grain) + 爯 (lifting and balancing)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 称

Examples

Everyone calls him teacher.

píng

Please weigh these apples for me.

This city is known as the city of flowers.

He calls himself an expert.

shòuhuòjīn

The shop assistant weighed out a kilo of oranges.

称 (chēng) means both to call or name something and to weigh it on a scale. The two senses share the original idea of holding something up to assess it.

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This word is part of lesson 56.