Meaning
paper
Chinese: 纸张，也泛指纸制品或书面材料。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “zhi” becomes a different word in each tone. 纸 is the 3rd 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
- 报纸bào zhǐnewspaper; newsprint
- 图纸tú zhǐblueprint; drawing; design plans; graph paper
- 造纸术zào zhǐ shùpapermaking process
- 纸人zhǐ rénhuman figure made of paper or papier-mâché
- 面纸miàn zhǐfacial tissue; kleenex
Example Sentence
桌上放着一叠写满字的纸。Zhuō shàng fàng zhe yì dié xiě mǎn zì de zhǐ.On the desk lies a stack of paper covered with writing.
桌Zhuōtable上shàngon放fàngto put着zhe(ongoing action)一yìone叠diéto pile up写xiěto write满mǎnManchu ethnic group字zìletter的deof纸zhǐpaper (CL:张,沓)。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
The silk/fibre radical 纟 (meaning) plus 氏 (shì, sound): a sheet made from matted fibres — ‘paper’. Simplified from 紙.
A way to remember it
Fibre (纟) + the sound 氏 — paper.
Easy to confuse with
- 氏‘Clan / surname’: the right-hand sound part of 纸, on its own.