埃 (āi): dust, dirt

埃 (āi) is a Chinese character meaning “dust.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 土 (semantic) and 矣 (phonetic). It ranks #1051 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 埃 earth. Its radical form 土 (earth) appears in many related characters such as 土 (tǔ, earth, soil), 地 (dì, earth, ground), 场 (chǎng, field, place).

Spoken pronunciation

Radical: 土 earth10 strokesFrequency #1051土 semantic 矣 phonetic

Definitions

dust
dirt

Etymology & Origin

埃

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿰土矣 (layout: left-right)

Components:土semantic 矣phonetic

Stroke Order

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
埃及proper-noun	āi jí	Egypt
埃文proper-noun	āi wén	Evan
埃德蒙	āi dé méng	(name) Edmund
埃塞俄比亚proper-noun	āi sài é bǐ yà	Ethiopia
劳埃德	láo āi dé	Lloyd (name)
尘埃noun	chén āi	dust
埃德	āi dé	Ed (name - Eduard)
皮埃尔proper-noun	pí āi ěr	(name) Pierre
埃德加proper-noun	āi dé jiā	Edgar (name)
埃琳娜	āi lín nà	Elena (name)
尘埃落定phrase	chén āi luò dìng	lit. the dust has settled (idiom)
埃米尔noun	āi mǐ ěr	(loanword) emir
苏维埃noun	sū wéi āi	Soviet (council)
埃文斯proper-noun	āi wén sī	Evans
里维埃拉	lǐ wéi āi lā	riviera (loanword)

Total compounds

As first character

As last character

As middle character

埃 appears in 92 compound words: 71 as the first character, 12 as the last, and 17 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 埃 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

森sēn

0.48417 co-occurrences

哲zhé

0.45013 co-occurrences

及jí

0.40227 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

埃德蒙顿Āidéméngdùn

(chiefly Mainland China) Edmonton (the capital city of Alberta, Canada)

埃尔多安Āi'ěrduō'ān

a transliteration of the Turkish surname Erdoğan

埃尔帕索Āi'ěrpàsuǒ

El Paso

埃涅阿斯Āiniè'āsī

Aeneas

尘埃落定chén'āiluòdìng

to be finalised; to get sorted out

phrase

出埃及记Chū-Āijíjì

Exodus (second book of the Bible)

杜瓦利埃Dùwǎlì'āi

a transliteration of the French surname Duvalier

Showing 7 of 8 idioms containing 埃.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

埃地改革让农民有了自己的田地。

Āi dì gǎi gé ràng nóng mín yǒu le zì jǐ de tián dì .

Land reform gave farmers their own fields.

InvestingMar 2026

埃森哲第二季度业绩超预期但股价下跌因盈利...

Āi sēn zhé dì èr jì dù yè jì chāo yù qī dàn gǔ jià xià diē yīn yíng lì . . .

Accenture's second-quarter results beat expectations, but its stock price fell due to profits...

Investing 香港Mar 2026

埃森哲第二季业绩胜预期但盈利指引令人失望 ...

Āi sēn zhé dì èr jì yè jì shèng yù qī dàn yíng lì zhǐ yǐn lìng rén shī wàng . . .

Accenture's second-quarter results beat expectations, but its profit guidance was disappointing ...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...副不打烊画廊】联副/梁育瑄作品〈如雾的尘埃〉

. . . fù bù dǎ 烊 huà láng lián fù liáng yù 瑄 zuò pǐn rú wù de chén Āi

...The Never-Closing Gallery】Lianfu / Liang Yuxuan’s Work “Dust Like Mist”

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

埃斯顿(02715.HK):今起招股,每手...

Āi sī dùn ( 0 2 7 1 5 . H K ) : jīn qǐ zhāo gǔ , měi shǒu . . .

Estun (02715.HK): Subscription begins today, with each lot...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

埃克森美孚股价上涨2% 公司就60多年前在...

Āi kè sēn měi 孚 gǔ jià shàng zhǎng 2 gōng sī jiù 6 0 duō nián qián zài . . .

ExxonMobil shares rose 2% as the company addressed events that occurred more than 60 years ago in...

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 埃 (āi) mean in Chinese?

埃 (āi) primarily means "dust." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #1051 in character frequency.

How many strokes does 埃 have?

埃 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 埃?

The radical associated with 埃 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.

What are the components of 埃?

埃 is composed of: 土 (semantic), 矣 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰土矣 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.

What are common words containing 埃?

Common words with 埃 include: 埃及 (āi jí, "Egypt"); 埃文 (āi wén, "Evan"); 埃德蒙 (āi dé méng, "(name) Edmund"); 埃塞俄比亚 (āi sài é bǐ yà, "Ethiopia"); 劳埃德 (láo āi dé, "Lloyd (name)"). There are over 92 compound words containing this character.

What characters sound the same as 埃 (āi)?

Several characters share the pronunciation āi: 挨 (in order), 唉 (interjection or grunt of agreement or recognition (e.g. yes, it's me!)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.

Is 埃 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

Yes, 埃 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 埃 with real-time feedback

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