Kilo Lingo

(zǒng) - always; general, overall in Mandarin

zǒng

Traditional: 總

Line drawing of 总
Coloured illustration of 总
#970 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

always; general, overall

Word origin

A single character meaning general, overall or always. The modern simplified form sits above the 心 (heart) radical, which marks many words to do with mind and disposition, with the upper portion serving as the phonetic component. The senses of gathering things together (overall, general) and of habitual action (always) both flow from the core idea of summing up.

Origin
phono-semantic compound
Root
phonetic upper component + 心 (heart radical)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 总

Examples

He is always late.

One day you will understand.

He is always very busy.

He always finds a way to solve problems.

You cannot just keep waiting forever.

总 (zǒng) means always, or general and overall.

Where this fits

Appears in 3 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 总.

Used in

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Mandarin · Free printables

总: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "总" (always; general, overall): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 20.