挨 (āi): in order, in sequence, close to, adjacent to, to suffer, to endure

挨 (āi) is a Chinese character meaning “in order.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 矣 (phonetic). It ranks #1984 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 挨 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. in order
  2. in sequence
  3. close to
  4. adjacent to
  5. to suffer
  6. to endure

Etymology & Origin

挨

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌矣 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Practice writing 挨 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
挨饿verbái èto go hungry
挨打verbái dǎto take a beating
挨着āi zhenear
挨揍verbái zòuto be beaten
挨家挨户phraseāi jiā āi hùto go from house to house
挨个adjectiveāi gèone by one
挨骂verbái màto receive a scolding
挨批verbái pīto be criticized
挨近verbāi jìnto approach
挨个儿verbāi gè rerhua variant of 挨個|挨个
挨整verbái zhěngto be the target of an attack
挨门挨户phraseāi mén āi hùsee 挨家挨戶|挨家挨户
挨斗verbái dòuto suffer censure
挨打受气ái dǎ shòu qìto suffer bullying and beating (idiom)
挨不上āi bù shàngto be irrelevant
42
Total compounds
95
As first character
0
As last character
5
As middle character

挨 appears in 42 compound words: 95 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 5 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 挨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

蹋tà
0.66610 co-occurrences
饿è
0.635396 co-occurrences
揍zòu
0.56784 co-occurrences
棚péng
0.55810 co-occurrences
紧jǐn
0.525504 co-occurrences
糟zāo
0.49010 co-occurrences
户hù
0.458478 co-occurrences
骂mà
0.45750 co-occurrences
赔péi
0.44511 co-occurrences
饥jī
0.43752 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

挨打受骂ái dǎ shòu màHSK 7+

to suffer beatings and receive abuse (idiom)

phrase
挨饿受冻ái è shòu dòngHSK 7+

(idiom) to go cold and hungry

phrase
挨家挨户āijiā'āihùHSK 7+

from door to door; from family to family; from house to house

phrase
挨肩擦背āi jiān cā bèiHSK 7+

(idiom) to be crowded together

phrase
挨门挨户āimén'āihùHSK 7+

synonym of 挨家挨戶 /挨家挨户 (āijiā'āihù, “(to go) from door to door”)

phrase
忍饥挨饿rěn jī ái èHSK 7+

starving; famished

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

挨照镜子,整理一下自己的仪容。

āi zhào jìng zǐ , zhěng lǐ yī xià zì jǐ de yí róng .

Look in the mirror and tidy up your appearance.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

酷澎个资外泄!只赔千元折价券挨批没诚意 律师:最高可求偿2万

kù péng gè zī wài xiè ! zhī péi qiān yuán zhé jià quàn āi pī méi chéng yì lǜ shī : zuì gāo kě qiú cháng 2 wàn

Cool Peng's personal information leaked! Only 1,000 yuan discount coupon was criticized for being insincere Lawyer: Up to 20,000 yuan can be claimed

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

深夜清通风井挨批 北捷致歉允诺改善

shēn yè qīng tōng fēng jǐng āi pī běi jié zhì qiàn yǔn nuò gǎi shàn

Late at night, the ventilation shaft was criticized, and Beijie apologized and promised to improve

EttodayFeb 2026

高永表挨轰后回稳!金泽延飙154公里 WBC韩国...

gāo yǒng biǎo āi hōng hòu huí wěn ! jīn zé yán biāo 1 5 4 gōng lǐ W B C hán guó . . .

Gao Yongbiao stabilized after being bombarded! Kanazawa soared 154 kilometers WBC South Korea...

LtnFeb 2026

...天机试炼场》粗俗发言开殉职案玩笑?全炫茂挨轰急灭火

. . . tiān jī shì liàn chǎng cū sú fā yán kāi 殉 zhí àn wán xiào ? quán xuàn mào āi hōng jí miè huǒ

... "Tianji Proving Ground" vulgar speech joke about the death of the line of duty? Quan Xuanmao was bombarded and quickly extinguished the fire

工商時報Feb 2026

7千万修复儒考棚变特卖会场!挨轰糟蹋古迹 市府称:短期个案

7 qiān wàn xiū fù rú kǎo péng biàn tè mài huì chǎng ! āi hōng zāo tà gǔ jì shì fǔ chèn : duǎn qī gè àn

70 million repaired Confucian examination shed into a special sale venue! The city government said: short-term case

Tatoeba

世界上许多人在挨饿。

Shìjiè shàng xǔduō rén zài ái'è.

Many people are suffering from hunger around the world.

Tatoeba

我过了难挨的一天。

Wǒ guò le nán ái de yī tiān.

I had a hard day.

Tatoeba

我们村挨近火车站。

Wǒmen cūn āijìn huǒchēzhàn.

Our village is close to the railway station.

Tatoeba

每年,这个机构组织很多会议的志工挨家挨户地卖弗里斯兰语书。

Měinián, zhège jīgòu zǔzhī hěn duō huìyì de zhìgōng āijiā'āihù de mài fúlǐsīlán yǔ shū.

Every year, the organisation organises a number of meetings of volunteers who go door-to-door to sell Frisian books.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced āi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 挨 (āi) mean in Chinese?
挨 (āi) primarily means "in order." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1984 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 挨 and 展?
挨 (āi) and 展 (zhǎn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 挨 (close) vs 展 (open).
How many strokes does 挨 have?
挨 is written with 10 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 挨?
The radical associated with 挨 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 挨?
挨 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 矣 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌矣 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 挨?
Common words with 挨 include: 挨饿 (ái è, "to go hungry"); 挨打 (ái dǎ, "to take a beating"); 挨着 (āi zhe, "near"); 挨揍 (ái zòu, "to be beaten"); 挨家挨户 (āi jiā āi hù, "to go from house to house"). There are over 42 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 挨 (āi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation āi: 埃 (dust), 唉 (interjection or grunt of agreement or recognition (e.g. yes, it's me!)), 爱 (to love), 艾 (Chinese mugwort or wormwood), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 挨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 挨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 挨 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.