Chinese character 组

Group, set, or organize—the surrounding words decide.

小组 means a small group; 组成 means “form” or “make up”; 组合 means “combine” or “combination.” After a number, 组 counts people or things treated as a unit.

Check what is being counted before choosing your translation. 一组数据 means “a set of data,” not a team.

Is 组 the same as 組?

They are corresponding forms, but your language determines which to use.

Use 组 in simplified Chinese and 組 in traditional Chinese. Japanese also uses 組, pronounced kumi for a group, set, or school class. Changing the font will not switch one character into the other.

Where does 组 come from?

Its history includes a word for woven silk bands.

Ancestors appear in handwritten texts from ancient China’s Warring States and Qin periods, not necessarily in the exact modern form 组. The early dictionary tradition describes a woven silk band used with seals—objects for stamping an identifying mark—or jade pendants.

That textile sense belongs to the history of 組, alongside today’s grouping and organizing meanings. In Edo-period and wartime Japan, 組 also named village, trade, military, and neighborhood units. In historical writing, it may identify a formal organization rather than a casual group.