琴
Tap the pinyin to hear it
guqin 古琴[gu3 qin2] (a type of zither); musical instrument in general
- HSK 3.0
- Level 5
- Old HSK
- Level 4
- Strokes
- 12
- Radical
- 玉 +8
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 琴
- Common rank
- #992
- Unicode
- U+7434
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 琴 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
Two guitar strings 玨 suggest the meaning; 今 provides the pronunciation
How to remember it
stringed instrument · Heisig RSH #2608
jewel + clock
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 琴
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 大提琴手 | cellist | |
| 马头琴 | morin khuur (Mongolian bowed stringed instrument) | |
| 电子琴 | electronic keyboard (music) | |
| 小提琴手 | violinist; fiddler | |
| 手风琴 | accordion | |
| 口风琴 | melodica | |
| 天琴星座 | Lyra, constellation containing Vega 織女星|织女星[Zhi1 nu:3 xing1] | |
| 低音大提琴 | double bass; contrabass | |
| 管风琴 | organ; pipe organ | |
| 林琴南 | courtesy name of Lin Shu 林紓|林纾[Lin2 Shu1] | |
| 琴通尼 | (Tw) gin and tonic | |
| 爱琴海 | Aegean Sea | |
| 大提琴 | cello (CL:把[ba3]) | |
| 中提琴 | viola | |
| 小提琴 | fiddle; violin | |
| 对牛弹琴 | lit. to play the lute to a cow (idiom); fig. offering a treat to an unappreciative audienc… | |
| 天琴座 | Lyra (constellation) | |
| 琴通宁 | (Tw) gin and tonic | |
| 黑琴鸡 | (bird species of China) black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) | |
| 索尔仁尼琴 | Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Russian writer, prominent Soviet dissident, author of t… |