宗

zōng

lineage, ancestry; ancestor, clan; ancestral temple; principal or primary element.

Meaning

Physical/Ritual: The ancestral temple or the altar within it.
Social/Kinship: Lineage or clan (specifically as a ritual or legal entity); the head of a lineage or the primary ancestor.
Abstract/Qualitative: The principal, chief, or primary element of a system; a standard, guiding principle, or school of thought (doctrine).

Noun: Temple, clan, ancestor, or doctrine.
Attributive Adjective: Used to denote "primary," "chief," or "highest" (e.g., the main branch of a family or the foremost authority in a field).
Verb: To venerate, respect, or take as a standard/authority.

宗 vs. 祖 (zu): While both relate to ancestors, 祖 typically refers to the progenitor or "root," whereas 宗 emphasizes systemic organization, ritual legitimacy, and the continuing lineage as an institution.
宗 vs. 族 (zú): 族 generally denotes the broader biological blood-bond and the collective kinship group; 宗 refers to the hierarchical center and the ritual authority of that group.
宗 vs. 系 (xì): 系 describes the linear string of descent (genealogy); 宗 describes the institutional framework of that descent.

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.