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

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

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌矣 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
饿ái èto go hungry
ái dǎto take a beating
āi zhenear
ái zòuto be beaten
āi jiā āi hùto go from house to house
āi gèone by one
ái màto receive a scolding
ái pīto be criticized
āi jìnto approach
āi gè rerhua variant of 挨個|挨个[ai1 ge4]
ái zhěngto be the target of an attack
āi mén āi hùsee 挨家挨戶|挨家挨户[ai1 jia1 ai1 hu4]
ái dòuto suffer censure
ái dǎ shòu qìto suffer bullying and beating (idiom)
āi bù shàngto be irrelevant
41
Total compounds
95
As first character
0
As last character
5
As middle character

appears in 41 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

饿è
0.6441,188 co-occurrences
zòu
0.575252 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.5331,512 co-occurrences
0.4651,434 co-occurrences
0.462153 co-occurrences
0.443156 co-occurrences
zhe
0.4071,164 co-occurrences
dòng
0.40596 co-occurrences
0.386768 co-occurrences
0.3801,608 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

ái dǎ shòu màHSK 7+

to suffer beatings and receive abuse (idiom)

phrase
饿ái è shòu dòngHSK 7+

(idiom) to go cold and hungry

phrase
āijiā'āihùHSK 7+

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

phrase
āi jiān cā bèiHSK 7+

(idiom) to be crowded together

phrase
āimén'āihùHSK 7+

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

phrase
饿rěn jī ái èHSK 7+

starving; famished

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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!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

世界上许多人在饿。

Shìjiè shàng xǔduō rén zài ái'è.

Many people are suffering from hunger around the world.

Tatoeba

我过了难的一天。

Wǒ guò le nán ái de yī tiān.

I had a hard day.

Tatoeba

我们村近火车站。

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

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 41 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 挨 (āi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation āi: 唉 (interjection or grunt of agreement or recognition (e.g. yes, it's me!)), 哎 (hey!), 哀 (Ai (c. 2000 BC), sixth of legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God, also known as Li 釐|厘), 癌 (cancer), 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.