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Definition 2025

歸

歸

See also: 帰 and 归

Translingual

Traditional 歸
Shinjitai 帰
Simplified 归

Han character

歸 (radical 77 止+14, 18 strokes, cangjie input 竹一尸一月 (HMSMB), four-corner 27127, composition ⿰⿱𠂤止帚)

References

  • KangXi: page 578, character 7
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 16349
  • Dae Jaweon: page 968, character 18
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1446, character 15
  • Unihan data for U+6B78

Chinese

trad. 歸
simp. 归
alt. forms 㱕
帰

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 歸
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Bamboo and silk script Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (追) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
蘬 *kʰlul, *kʰrul, *kʰrulʔ
磓 *tuːl
塠 *tuːl
頧 *tuːl, *tuːlʔ
鴭 *tuːl
鎚 *tuːl, *dul, *duls
搥 *tuːl
縋 *dols
膇 *dols
槌 *dols, *dul
追 *tul
桘 *dul
巋 *kʰrul, *kʰrulʔ
歸 *klul

Ideogram (指事) : 𠂤 ‎(“ancient form of 師 (“troops”)”) + 帚 ‎(“broom; sweep”) – to eradicate the enemy and return.

Some analyse the 帚 component in the oracle bone script as a ligature of 止 (“to stop, to cease”) and 方 (“peripheral tribes”), i.e. “(of tribes in the periphery) to cease enmity and submit”.

A 止 (“foot”) or 辵 (“walking”) component was further added in the bronze inscriptions.

Shuowen deems 𠂤 to be the phonetic component of this character.

Etymology 1

Starostin and Schuessler (2007) consider this a possible derivative of 回 (OC *ɡuːl, “to revolve; to return”). Compared with Tibetan འཁོར ‎('khor, “circle; turn”), འཁོར་བ ‎('khor ba, “to turn round; to return”) by Xue (2001) and Wang (2007).

Pronunciation

  • Dialectal data▼
Variety Location 歸
Mandarin Beijing /kuei⁵⁵/
Harbin /kuei⁴⁴/
Tianjin /kuei²¹/
Jinan /kuei²¹³/
Qingdao /kue²¹³/
Zhengzhou /kuei²⁴/
Xi'an /kuei²¹/
Xining /kuɨ⁴⁴/
Yinchuan /kuei⁴⁴/
Lanzhou /kuei³¹/
Ürümqi /kuei⁴⁴/
Wuhan /kuei⁵⁵/
Chengdu /kuei⁵⁵/
Guiyang /kuei⁵⁵/
Kunming /kuei⁴⁴/
Nanjing /kuəi³¹/
Hefei /kue²¹/
Jin Taiyuan /kuei¹¹/
Pingyao /kuei¹³/
Hohhot /kuei³¹/
Wu Shanghai /kue⁵³/
Suzhou /kue̞⁵⁵/
Hangzhou /kui³³/
Wenzhou /kai³³/
/t͡ɕy³³/ 當歸
Hui Shexian /kue³¹/
Tunxi /kue¹¹/
Xiang Changsha /kuei³³/
Xiangtan /kuəi³³/
Gan Nanchang /kui⁴²/
Hakka Meixian /kui⁴⁴/
Taoyuan /kui²⁴/
Cantonese Guangzhou /kwɐi⁵³/
Nanning /kʷɐi⁵⁵/
Hong Kong /kwɐi⁵⁵/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /kui⁵⁵/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /kuoi⁴⁴/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /ky⁵⁴/
Shantou (Min Nan) /kui³³/
Haikou (Min Nan) /kui²³/
Rime
Character 歸
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 見 (28)
Final (韻) 微 (21)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Closed
Division (等) III
Fanqie 舉韋切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /kʉi/
Pan
Wuyun		 /kʷɨi/
Shao
Rongfen		 /kiuəi/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /kuj/
Li
Rong		 /kiuəi/
Wang
Li		 /kĭwəi/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /kwe̯i/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 guī
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 歸
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 guī
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ kjwɨj ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[k]ʷəj/
English return (v.)

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 歸
Reading # 1/1
No. 17748
Phonetic
component		 追
Rime
group		 微
Rime
subdivision		 2
Corresponding
MC rime		 歸
Old
Chinese		 /*klul/

Definitions

歸

  1. to return (to a place); to come back to
  2. to return to (a person, a status); to revert to
  3. to submit to; to seek patronage
  4. to tend towards; to converge
  5. to belong to

Compounds

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 歸 – see 愧.
(This character, 歸, is a variant form of 愧.)

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of 歸 – see 饋.
(This character, 歸, is a variant form of 饋.)

Japanese

Kanji

歸

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 帰)

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Readings

Korean

Hanja

歸 • ‎(gwi, gwe) (hangeul 귀, 궤, revised gwi, gwe, McCune-Reischauer kwi, kwe, Yale kwi, kwey)

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Vietnamese

Han character

歸 (qui, quy)

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