Character Contained In References Comments
Simplified Traditional Ancient forms Archaic forms
traditional formhandwritten form

Variants
Phonetic
Semantic
Apparent
九 穴 ⿱穴九
Mandarin
jiu1, jiu4, ran3, obs
English
Definitions
to investigate; after all; to study carefully; to dye; examine
Mnemonic
To dig 穴 and take measurements 九
Etymology
Notes
Perhaps this character embodies the original meaning of 九: a hand outstretched to take the measure of something; in this case the cave radical 穴 has been added to show the extent of effort required