家 (jiā) can mean home or family, and its meaning also depends on the word in which it appears.
Verified vocabulary and pronunciation#
CC-CEDICT lists home and family, a classifier for families or businesses, and a suffix associated with specialists among the uses of 家. Its compound entries distinguish 回家, returning home; 家人, a family member; 全家, the whole family; and 国家, country, nation or state. The compound’s meaning should be learned as a whole.
| Word | Reading | Selected meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 回家 | huí jiā | return home |
| 家人 | jiā rén | family member |
| 全家 | quán jiā | whole family |
| 国家 | guó jiā | country; state |
Practice and interpretation#
Compare a sentence about a home with one about a family member, then identify what 家 contributes in each word. If studying the character’s historical forms, use a specialist palaeographic source. A modern drawing or memorable story alone cannot prove what all ancient households valued or how their economy worked.
References and lexical-data licence#
Lexical entries are adapted and selected from CC-CEDICT contributors, distributed by MDBG, release retrieved 23 October 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Meanings are abridged and numbered pinyin is converted to tone marks. Practice instructions are newly written.