內

• Spatial/Locative: The physical interior of a space, container, or boundary.
• Domestic/Social: The domestic sphere, including the women’s quarters (wives, concubines, and female attendants) and household management as opposed to public or state matters.
• Political/Imperial: The "Inner Court" (內廷), referring to the private residential and administrative zone of the Emperor, characterized by intimacy and informal influence in tension with the formal bureaucracy of the "Outer Court" (外廷).
• Abstract/Psychological: Internal states, secret intentions, or the essence ("heart") of a matter.

Functions as a noun ("the inside"), an adjective ("inner"), or a locative marker ("within").

• Contrast: Primarily denotes the opposite of 外 (outer).

// Functional Distinction: Distinguished from 入 (//rù*) in that 內 refers to a location or sphere, whereas 入 refers to the action of entering.

• Variant: 内 (U+5185) is functionally identical.

// Reading: Tang-period reading //nuə̀i*.

While scripts in very early texts can occasionally be ambiguous between 內 and 入, the grammatical function usually clarifies the distinction.