Korean reading 돌 is very rare among 한자 and makes this graph distinctive.

The alternative graph 乭 (also read 돌) is a 국자 (national character), used mainly in Korean names and toponyms, not in Classical Chinese.

Ideogrammic compound (pictographic origin):
穴 (구멍 혈, “cave, hole”) — denotes a hole or burrow.
犬 (개 견, “dog”) — depicts a dog.
Thus, the original graph shows a dog rushing out of a hole, meaning “suddenly, to burst forth.”
From this imagery, the extended sense “sudden, abrupt” and “to collide” developed.

突然 (돌연) — suddenly, abruptly
突擊 (돌격) — assault, sudden attack
衝突 (충돌) — to collide, conflict
突出 (돌출) — to protrude, to stand out

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

limit, degree, extent, journey, process, about

to report (to a superior), to submit, to inform

seed, kind, type, to plant, to cultivate

grain, cereals, crops

to pile up, to accumulate, to amass, quantity, sum

to harvest, to reap, to gather

to investigate, to research, to study, to examine thoroughly

empty, void, vacant, sky, space

sudden, abrupt, to dash forward, to rush out, to collide, bump into

to exhaust, to reach the end, to be destitute, to be impoverished

to flee, to escape, to banish, to expel

writing, text, composition, section, chapter, insignia, badge

child, youth

end, extremity, clue, aspect, uprightness

to compete, to vie, to contend

smile, laugh

group, class, rank, order, equal, etc., and so on

The content on this page provided under the CC BY-NC-SA license.

Chinese character

Explore 214 Chinese radicals and their derived characters. Sort by radical or stroke count, and view the complete list of official Hanja radicals.

突

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Words that derived from 突

Additional notes

Alternative forms

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

References