籽 (zǐ) · seed, pit (of a fruit), small seeds of plants

Meanings

1 seed
2 pit (of a fruit)
3 small seeds of plants

Characters

籽

zǐ

seed / pit

Examples

HSK 6

她把西瓜籽吐了出来。

Tā bǎ xīguā zǐ tǔle chūlái.

She spat out the watermelon seeds.

HSK 6

农民把棉籽留下来明年再种。

Nóngmín bǎ mián zǐ liú xiàlái míngnián zài zhòng.

The farmers kept the cotton seeds to plant again next year.

Tips

usage

籽 specifically refers to small seeds within fruits and plants. Common compounds: 瓜籽 (melon seeds), 棉籽 (cottonseeds), 亚麻籽 (flaxseeds). Compare 种子 (seed in a broader/agricultural sense).

Components

radical

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Rice radical on the left - originally pictured grains scattered around a central stalk, four dots being separated kernels. Carries the meaning directly: 籽 is a seed-grain, the small hard kernel of a plant. Sits among 粒 grain, 粉 powder, 糊 paste, 粽 zongzi - all things that are or come from milled grain.

phonetic

子 zǐ

child; seed

Right side 子 supplies the sound directly - the same zǐ with no shift. 子 also doubles as a semantic reinforcement: it already means 'child, offspring, seed' on its own (think 种子 seed, 瓜子 melon seed), so the compound is almost tautological - grain-child for a seed. A rare case where phonetic and meaning point exactly the same way.