Meaning
works; phrases; classical Chinese poem; word; diction
Chinese: 工作、经典的。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “ci” becomes a different word in each tone. 词 is the 2nd tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 词语cí yǔword (general term including monosyllables through to short phrases); term (e.g. technical term); expression
- 词典cí diǎndictionary
- 生词shēng cínew word (in textbook); word that is unfamiliar or not yet studied
- 词汇cí huìvocabulary; list of words (e.g. for language teaching purposes); word
- 歌词gē císong lyric; lyrics
Example Sentence
这个词我不认识，要查字典。Zhè ge cí wǒ bú rèn shi, yào chá zì diǎn.I do not know this word; I need to look it up in the dictionary.
这个Zhè ge(pronoun) this词cíword我wǒI不búnot认识rèn shito know，要yàoto want查cháto research字典zì diǎn(coll.) dictionary。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
The speech radical 讠 (meaning) plus 司 (sī, sound): a unit of speech — a ‘word / term’. Simplified from 詞.
A way to remember it
Speech (讠) + the sound 司 — a word.
Easy to confuse with
- 司‘To manage’: the right-hand sound part of 词, on its own.