In classical texts, 弔 could mean “to visit” or “to reach,” in addition to mourning.

bow (for shooting arrows)

 (활 궁, “bow”) — symbolizing something drawn or bent.


human, person

 (사람 인, “person”) — a human figure.
Together they depict a person hanging or suspended (as by a bowstring), later extended metaphorically to mean “to mourn” (condolences for the deceased) and “to sympathize.”

弔問 (조문) — to pay respects to the deceased
弔意 (조의) — condolence, sympathy
弔詞 (조사) — funeral oration
弔民 (조민) — to pity the people

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

broad, wide, spacious, to expand, to extend, extensive, empty, vas

hall, government office, public building

to extend, to prolong, to delay, to put off

to build, to erect, to construct, to establish

to turn, to revolve, to circle around, to detour

to play with, to handle, to jest, to tease

corruption, abuse, defect, exhaustion

law, method, form, style, ceremony

to mourn, to condole, to express sympathy, to visit or reach, to pity

to pull, to draw, to attract

not, no

to loosen, to slacken, to relax, to neglect

younger brother, junior

bowstring, string of a musical instrument

weak, feeble, frail

to stretch, to expand, to display, to open, to spread

strong, powerful, forceful

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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.

Chinese characters (Hanja)

Chinese characters dictionary

弔

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Words that derived from 弔

Additional notes

Neighboring characters in the dictionary