old

Origin & mnemonic

The "old" radical originates from a pictographic depiction of a person with white hair and a bent back. In early pictographic and seal-script forms, it represents the visual characteristics of an elderly person.

Mnemonic: Picture a person wearing a hat (top part) with a bent back and knowing wink—that's the hallmark of old age.

• 老lǎo🔊

  prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity

  HSK 1

  6 strokes

• 考kǎo🔊

  to check

  HSK 1

  6 strokes

• 者zhě🔊

  (after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ...

  HSK 3

  8 strokes

• 耇gǒu🔊

  wrinkled face of the elderly

  9 strokes

• 耉gǒu🔊

  old variant of 耇[gou3]

  9 strokes

• 耄mào🔊

  extremely aged (in one's 80s or 90s)

  10 strokes

• 耆qí🔊

  man of sixty or seventy

  10 strokes

• 耊dié🔊

  old variant of 耋[die2]

  10 strokes

• 耈gǒu🔊

  old variant of 耇[gou3]

  11 strokes

• 耋dié🔊

  aged

  12 strokes