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Mythic Mandarin

刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn): meaning and stroke order

刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) means lit. a notch on the side of a boat to locate a sword dropped overboard (idiom); fig. an….

刻舟求剑

Simplified
刻舟求剑
Traditional
刻舟求劍
Pinyin
kè zhōu qiú jiàn

Stroke order of 刻舟求剑

刻

  • kè quarter (hour); moment
  • 8 strokes

Stroke by stroke

舟

  • zhōu boat
  • 6 strokes

Stroke by stroke

求

  • qiú to seek; to look for
  • 7 strokes

Stroke by stroke

剑

  • jiàn double-edged sword; CL:口[kou3],把[ba3]
  • jiàn variant of 劍|剑[jian4]
  • 9 strokes
  • Traditional form: 劍

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 刻舟求剑

  1. kè zhōu qiú jiàn Traditional 刻舟求劍
    • lit. a notch on the side of a boat to locate a sword dropped overboard (idiom); fig. an action made pointless by changed circumstances

Radicals of the characters

刻
Radical 刀 (Kangxi radical 18) · 8 strokes · 亥 on the left, 刂 on the right
舟
Radical 舟 (Kangxi radical 137) · 6 strokes
求
Radical 水 (Kangxi radical 85) · 7 strokes
剑
Radical 刀 (Kangxi radical 18) · 9 strokes · 佥 on the left, 刂 on the right

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).