jiū

after all

to investigate; to study carefully; Taiwan pr. [jiu4]

cave (穴) + sound jiū (九) = dig in to investigate

穴 is the cave or hole that anchors the meaning — you dig into a cavity to investigate and reach the bottom of something. 九 lends the sound jiū and does not carry semantic weight here.

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NinePhonetic
CaveSemantic

这件事竟是谁做的?

zhè jiàn shì jiū jìng shì shuí zuò de ?

who on earth did this thing after all?

我们需要深入研究竟是什么原因造成了这个问题。

wǒ men xū yào shēn rù yán jiū jiū jìng shì shén me yuán yīn zào chéng le zhè ge wèn tí 。

we need to investigate carefully what reason after all caused this problem.

Words with 究

一探究竟

yī tàn jiū jìng

to check out

中央研究院

zhōng yāng yán jiū yuàn

Academia Sinica, research institution headquartered in Taipei

中美文化研究中心

zhōng měi wén huà yán jiū zhōng xīn

the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, located in Nanjing, est. 1986 (formally, the Johns Hopkins University – Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies)

古根罕喷气推进研究中心

gǔ gēn hǎn pēn qì tuī jìn yán jiū zhōng xīn

Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT, from 1926)

可行性研究

kě xíng xìng yán jiū

feasibility study

国际肿瘤研究机构

guó jì zhǒng liú yán jiū jī gòu

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

学究

xué jiū

pedant

探究

tàn jiū

to investigate

探究式

tàn jiū shì

exploratory

推究

tuī jiū

to study

日本原子能研究所

rì běn yuán zǐ néng yán jiū suǒ

Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute

查究

chá jiū

to follow up a study

More characters with 穴

穿