石 shí stone

stone; rock

How it came to be

A lump lying at the foot of a cliff: the overhang drawn above, the boulder that came off it below.

Free noun/morpheme for "stone, rock" - 石头 (shítou) is the everyday colloquial word for a stone you'd pick up, while bare 石 mostly appears bound inside compounds.
化石 (huàshí) "fossil", 石油 (shíyóu) "petroleum", 宝石 (bǎoshí) "gem" and 钻石 (zuànshí) "diamond" are all common written/spoken compounds.
Has a rare second reading dàn, an old dry-measure unit for grain seen in historical texts (e.g. official salaries quoted in 石); you'll almost never need it in modern speech.