(chī): imbecile, sentimental, stupid

(chī) is a Chinese character meaning “imbecile.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2173 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, sickness. Its radical form (illness) appears in many related characters such as (, medicine), (bìng, illness), (téng, ache).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. imbecile
  2. sentimental
  3. stupid

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒知 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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
bái chīidiocy
chī míinfatuated
chī dāistupid
lǎo nián chī dāi zhèngsenile dementia
chī xīn wàng xiǎngto be carried away by one's wishful thinking (idiom)
rú chī rú zuì(idiom) enthralled
chī xīninfatuation
chī qínginfatuation
chī chīfoolish
chī xiǎngto daydream
chī rén shuō mènglunatic ravings
zǎo lǎo xìng chī dāi(coll.) Alzheimer's disease
lǎo nián xìng chī dāi zhèngsenile dementia
lǎo nián chī dāisenile dementia
rú zuì rú chīlit. as if drunk and stupefied (idiom)
29
Total compounds
55
As first character
24
As last character
21
As middle character

appears in 29 compound words: 55 as the first character, 24 as the last, and 21 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.

dāi
0.6192,310 co-occurrences
0.4974,008 co-occurrences
0.465654 co-occurrences
0.43910,740 co-occurrences
shǎ
0.431312 co-occurrences
bái
0.4234,854 co-occurrences
kuáng
0.415924 co-occurrences
qíng
0.3823,948 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.377912 co-occurrences
0.375504 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

chī rén chī fúHSK 7+

a fool suffers foolish fortune (idiom)

phrase
chīrénshuōmèngHSK 7+

lunatic ravings; nonsense; pipe dream

phrase
chīxīnwàngxiǎngHSK 7+

to obsessively fantasize about something that cannot come true

phrase
ní ní chī chīHSK 7+

docile

phrase
rúchīrúzuìHSK 7+

in ecstasies over; intoxicated by something; enchanted; carried away; spellbound; fascinated

phrase
rúzuìrúchīHSK 7+

alternative form of 如痴如醉 (rúchīrúzuì, “spellbound; fascinated”)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men chī zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "痴."

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

76人篮板能力弱!“篮板汉”卓蒙德成关键 主帅纳斯也盛赞

7 6 rén lán bǎn néng lì ruò ! lán bǎn chī hàn zhuó méng dé chéng guān jiàn zhǔ shuài nà sī yě shèng zàn

中時新聞網Mar 2026

独家》涉贪又多情!徐汉逃亡全靠“她” 情女助惨被押

dú jiā shè tān yòu duō qíng ! xú hàn táo wáng quán kào tā chī qíng nǚ zhù cǎn bèi yā

Exclusive: Accused of Corruption and Romantic Entanglements! Xu Han’s Escape Relyed Entirely on “Her”—His Devoted Female Accomplice Was Tragically Arrested

EttodayFeb 2026

短裙女搭捷运“大腿被蹭10秒” 低头见汉露鸟套弄

duǎn qún nǚ dā jié yùn dà tuǐ bèi cèng 1 0 miǎo dī tóu jiàn chī hàn lù niǎo tào nòng

The woman in a short skirt took the MRT and "her thighs were rubbed for 10 seconds" and looked down to see the fool dew and the bird

Tatoeba

,你脑子进水了?

Báichī, nǐ nǎozijìnshuǐ le?

Idiot... You got water in your brain or something?

Tatoeba

这是我人生中见过最白的事。

Zhè shì wǒrén shēng zhōng jiàn guo zuì bái chī de shì.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

Tatoeba

世界上都是白

Shìjiè shàng dōu shì báichī.

The world is full of fools.

Tatoeba

做该做的事是智慧,做不该做的事是愚

Zuò gāi zuò de shì shì zhìhuì, zuò bù gāi zuò de shì shì yú chī.

Intelligence is doing what you are supposed to, while stupidity is doing what you are not supposed to.

Tatoeba

你是说我的情绪问题跟那些白没什么两样吗?

Nǐ shì shuō wǒ de qíngxù wèntí gēn nàxiē báichī méishénme liǎngyàng ma?

Are you trying to suggest that my emotional problems are no different than those of a stupid person?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced chī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 痴 (chī) mean in Chinese?
痴 (chī) primarily means "imbecile." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2173 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 痴 and 蜘?
痴 (chī) and 蜘 (zhī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 疒 vs 虫 (same 知 component).
How many strokes does 痴 have?
痴 is written with 13 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 痴?
The radical associated with 痴 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 痴?
痴 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 知 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒知 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 痴?
Common words with 痴 include: 白痴 (bái chī, "idiocy"); 痴迷 (chī mí, "infatuated"); 痴呆 (chī dāi, "stupid"); 老年痴呆症 (lǎo nián chī dāi zhèng, "senile dementia"); 痴心妄想 (chī xīn wàng xiǎng, "to be carried away by one's wishful thinking (idiom)"). There are over 29 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 痴 (chī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chī: 吃 (to eat), 弛 (to unstring a bow), 池 (pool), 驰 (to gallop), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 痴 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 痴 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.