Kilo Lingo

(zhī) - only, just; (measure word for animals) in Mandarin

zhī

Traditional: 只

Line drawing of 只
Coloured illustration of 只
HSK 4
#161 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

only, just; (measure word for animals)

Word origin

只 is 口 (mouth) with two short strokes beneath it, read in the Shuowen as breath falling away, and the graph was borrowed early on for the adverb 'only'. Simplified Chinese then merged in 隻, the older measure word showing a hand 又 holding a single bird 隹, which is why one character now carries both jobs.

Origin
ideograph
Root
口 (mouth) over two marks; the measure word absorbs 隻 (a hand holding one bird)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 只

只

Examples

。

This cat is very cute.

。

We have two dogs at home.

。

That bird is very small.

。

I just want to rest for a moment.

。

I only want to drink water.

只 does two quite separate jobs. As an adverb it means "only" or "just", and it goes in front of the verb: 我只想休息一下 (I only want a short rest). It is also the measure word for most animals and for one half of a pair, sitting between the number and the noun: 两只狗 (two dogs), 一只手 (one hand). Word order tells the two apart on the page, and tone tells them apart in speech, where the adverb is read zhǐ and the measure word zhī.

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Appears in 6 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 只.

只是zhǐ shìjust, merely, only只有zhǐ yǒuonly, just, the only one只要zhǐ yàoas long as, provided that, if only只能zhǐ néngcan only, have no choice but to只会zhī huìcan only, will only只不过zhī bú guòmerely, only, just, no more than

Used in

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(1)

Grammar articles

(10)

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只: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 4.