Sinograph Addenda · Signs

ten

Name	ten
Reads	shí
Means	ten; complete
Taught in	05 · The busiest words

Where it comes from

The tally that closed a count of ten — early forms are a single weighted vertical, later crossed into the familiar shape. Classical numbers compose on it: 二十 twenty, 三十 thirty. Taught in the busiest-words chapter.

How to remember it

One stroke down, one across: the count is full. Ten — and every multiple of ten stacks a digit in front of it.

In the wild

三十而立。sān shí ér lì"at thirty, I stood" — stood on his own, formed and settled; the Master's life told in decades: 三十, three tens

Analects 2.4, as quoted in the Ming commentary Sishu liushu. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0052:003:6b · license: attribution.