ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

only; (measure for animals)

Where 只 comes from

Breath 八 leaving a mouth 口 — originally a sentence-final particle, just an exhale. It took over two jobs: zhǐ 'only', and zhī, the counter for animals and one of a pair.

只 in Chinese culture

只有 'only have/only if', 只是 'merely'. As zhī: 一只猫 a cat, 一只手 one hand (of the pair). Two readings, one tiny character doing enormous daily work.

Example

How to remember it

One breath from one mouth — ONLY this much.

我只有一只猫 uses both readings in one sentence: zhǐ 'only' then zhī 'one (cat)'.

Same sound, different tones

Words unlocked by 只

Related characters

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