求

qiú

seek; demand, request; beseech

Meaning

Pursuit (Physical or Intellectual): Seeking a lost object, person, or destination. When paired with abstract nouns (e.g., 道 dao, 知 zhi), it indicates disciplined pursuit or striving for attainment.
Petition (Social/Interpersonal): Requesting a favor, assistance, or an object. The specific tone—whether a humble plea, formal application, or desperate beseeching—is determined by surrounding honorifics and relative social status.
Demand (Legal/Assertive): In administrative, legal, or financial contexts, used for claiming debts, insisting on obligations, or asserting a right.

Transitive: Standard [Subject] → 求 → [Object].
Intentional/Auxiliary: When followed by another verb, it can function as "seeking to [verb]" or "striving to [verb]," marking the intention or effort behind the subsequent action.

vs. 問 (wèn): 問 is specifically for seeking information; 求 is for seeking a result, an object, or a favor.
vs. 請 (qǐng): 請 carries a stronger sense of formal propriety and invitation; 求 is more direct, ranging from raw urgency to assertive demand.

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