炽 (chì): to burn, to blaze, splendid

炽 (chì) is a Chinese character meaning “to burn.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 火 (semantic) and 只 (phonetic). It ranks #3498 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 炽 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 烟 (yān, smoke), 烧 (shāo, to burn, to cook).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to burn
  2. to blaze
  3. splendid

Etymology & Origin

炽

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火只 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
炽热adjectivechì rèred-hot
炽烈adjectivechì lièburning fiercely
白炽灯nounbái chì dēngincandescent lamp
白炽nounbái chìwhite heat
朱高炽zhū gāo chìZhu Gaochi, personal name of fourth Ming emperor Hongxi 洪熙
旺炽性wàng chì xìngflorid (medicine)
旺炽型wàng chì xíngflorid (medicine)
炽盛adjectivechì shèngablaze (fire)
旺炽wàng chìblazing
9
Total compounds
33
As first character
33
As last character
33
As middle character

炽 appears in 9 compound words: 33 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 33 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

少数派Aug 2026

宿舍主灯 我们宿舍的主灯使用的是最普通的白炽灯管。

sù shě zhǔ dēng wǒ men sù shě de zhǔ dēng shǐ yòng de shì zuì pǔ tōng de bái chì dēng guǎn .

Main Light in the Dorm: The main light in our dorm uses the most common incandescent light bulb.

IT之家Jun 2026

气态巨行星与褐矮星诞生之初都极度炽热,随着时间推移会逐步冷却。

qì tài jù xíng xīng yǔ hè ǎi xīng dàn shēng zhī chū dōu jí dù chì rè , suí zhe shí jiān tuī yí huì zhú bù lěng què .

Both gas giants and brown dwarfs are extremely hot at the time of their formation and gradually cool over time.

中国新闻网·体育May 2026

寄语 只要心底藏着最炽热的一束光,就可以为未来照明方向。

jì yǔ zhī yào xīn dǐ zàng zhe zuì chì rè de yī shù guāng , jiù kě yǐ wéi wèi lái zhào míng fāng xiàng .

A Message: As long as you hold onto the brightest light deep within your heart, it will illuminate the path ahead.

IT之家May 2026

刘炽平称腾讯没有大裁员计划:跟硅谷公司不太一样

liú chì píng chēng téng xùn méi yǒu dà cái yuán jì huá : gēn guī gǔ gōng sī bù tài yī yàng

Liu Chiping Says Tencent Has No Plans for Major Layoffs: It’s a Bit Different from Silicon Valley Companies

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 火 (fire) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 炽 (chì) mean in Chinese?
炽 (chì) primarily means "to burn." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3498 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 炽 and 识?
炽 (chì) and 识 (shí) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 讠 (same 只 component).
How many strokes does 炽 have?
炽 is written with 9 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 炽?
The radical associated with 炽 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 炽?
炽 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 只 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火只 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 炽?
Common words with 炽 include: 炽热 (chì rè, "red-hot"); 炽烈 (chì liè, "burning fiercely"); 白炽灯 (bái chì dēng, "incandescent lamp"); 白炽 (bái chì, "white heat"); 朱高炽 (zhū gāo chì, "Zhu Gaochi, personal name of fourth Ming emperor Hongxi 洪熙"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
Is 炽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 炽 and the traditional form is 熾.

Practice writing 炽 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.