Example sentences
jiā家lí离gōng公sī司jìn近。
Home is close to work.
zǒu走jìn近lù路。
Take the shortcut.
The story behind the character
近
近 is 辶, walking, plus 斤 for the sound. Xu Shen glossed it 近, 附也: to be attached to, to be close by. The 斤 on the right is an axe, but here it is purely phonetic and does no work beyond how it sounds. 近 and 远 are built the same way, one walk plus one sound.