迟 (chí): late, delayed, slow

迟 (chí) is a Chinese character meaning “late.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 辶 (semantic) and 尺 (phonetic). It ranks #1366 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 迟 walk. Its radical form 辶 (walk) appears in many related characters such as 边 (biān, side), 过 (guò, to pass, past), 还 (hái, still, return).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. late
  2. delayed
  3. slow

Etymology & Origin

迟

pictophoneticwalk

Decomposition: ⿺辶尺 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 迟

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
迟到verbchí dàoto arrive late3
推迟verbtuī chíto postpone4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
迟早adverbchí zǎosooner or later
迟钝adjectivechí dùnslow in one's reactions
延迟verbyán chíto delay
迟疑verbchí yíto hesitate
迟缓adjectivechí huǎnslow
迟迟adverbchí chílate (with a task etc)
毫不迟疑phraseháo bù chí yíwithout the slightest hesitation
事不宜迟phraseshì bù yí chíthe matter should not be delayed
凌迟nounlíng chíthe lingering death
姗姗来迟shān shān lái chíto be late
迟滞adjectivechí zhìdelay
出来混迟早要还的chū lái hùn chí zǎo yào huán deif you live a life of crime, sooner or later you'll pay for it
虽迟但到phrasesuī chí dàn dào(slang) slow to arrive but eventually shows up
说时迟,那时快shuō shí chí , nà shí kuài(idiom) no sooner said than done
迟发性损伤chí fā xìng sǔn shāngdelayed lesion
32
Total compounds
53
As first character
28
As last character
19
As middle character

迟 appears in 32 compound words: 53 as the first character, 28 as the last, and 19 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 迟 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

钝dùn
0.595532 co-occurrences
延yán
0.5316,892 co-occurrences
滞zhì
0.528470 co-occurrences
推tuī
0.47910,216 co-occurrences
缓huǎn
0.449942 co-occurrences
辗niǎn
0.43172 co-occurrences
凌líng
0.364334 co-occurrences
却què
0.349262 co-occurrences
瞒mán
0.34818 co-occurrences
没méi
0.348648 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

毫不迟疑háobùchíyíHSK 6+

without the slightest hesitation; did not hesitate (to)

phrase
事不宜迟shìbùyíchíHSK 3+

now is the time; the matter cannot be put off; it must be done right away

phrase
虽迟但到suī chí dàn dàoHSK 3+

late yet arrived

phrase
姗姗来迟shān shān lái chíHSK 3+

to be late; to arrive slowly; to be slow in the coming

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

对不起,我来迟了,路上遇到了交通堵塞。

Duìbuqǐ, wǒ lái chí le, lù shang yù dào le jiāotōng dǔsè.

Sorry, I'm late; I encountered traffic congestion on the way.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

据报欧盟议会在关税风波后推迟对美国贸易协定投票

jù bào ōu méng yì huì zài guān shuì fēng bō hòu tuī chí duì měi guó mào yì xié dìng tóu piào

The EU Parliament reportedly postponed a vote on the US trade agreement after the tariff turmoil

InvestingFeb 2026

TD Cowen因数据中心出售延迟下调Cogent Communicati...

yīn shǔ jù zhōng xīn chū shòu yán chí xià diào . . .

TD Cowen downgrades Cogent Communications due to delayed data center sale...

NewsFeb 2026

氦气流动异常 阿提米丝2号绕月再推迟

氦 qì liú dòng yì cháng ā tí mǐ sī hào rào yuè zài tuī chí

Helium Flow Anomaly Delays Artemis II Lunar Orbit Mission

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|货运列车检车员:迟来的团圆,只为让更多..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng huò yùn liè chē jiǎn chē yuán chí lái de tuán yuán , zhī wéi ràng gēng duō . .

Spring Festival at the Grassroots Level | Freight Train Inspectors: A Delayed Reunion, All to Ensure More...

Tatoeba

迪克偶尔会上学迟到。

Díkè ǒu'ěr huì shàngxué chídào.

Dick is occasionally late to school.

Tatoeba

你迟早要后悔懒惰。

Nǐ chízǎo yào hòuhuǐ lǎnduò.

Sooner or later, you will regret your idleness.

Tatoeba

万一他迟到的话怎么辨?

Wànyī tā chídào dehuà zěnme biàn?

What if he should happen to be late?

Tatoeba

快点,马丁。我们已经迟到了!

Kuàidiǎn, Mǎdīng. wǒmen yǐjīng chídào le!

Hurry up, Martin. We're already late!

Tatoeba

哎呀,差点上课迟到!

āiyā, chàdiǎn shàngkè chídào!

Ach, I was almost late to class!

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 辶 (walk) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced chí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 迟 (chí) mean in Chinese?
迟 (chí) primarily means "late." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1366 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 迟 and 快?
迟 (chí) and 快 (kuài) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 迟 (slow) vs 快 (fast).
How many strokes does 迟 have?
迟 is written with 7 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 迟?
The radical associated with 迟 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 迟?
迟 is composed of: 辶 (semantic), 尺 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶尺 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 迟?
Common words with 迟 include: 迟到 (chí dào, "to arrive late"); 迟早 (chí zǎo, "sooner or later"); 推迟 (tuī chí, "to postpone"); 迟钝 (chí dùn, "slow in one's reactions"); 延迟 (yán chí, "to delay"). There are over 32 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 迟 (chí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chí: 持 (to hold, to maintain), 吃 (to eat), 池 (pool), 齿 (tooth), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 迟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 迟 and the traditional form is 遲.

Practice writing 迟 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.