辞 (cí): to resign, to dismiss, to decline

辞 (cí) is a Chinese character meaning “to resign.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 舌 (structural) and 辛 (structural). It ranks #1460 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 辞 bitter 辛 words 舌. Its radical form 辛 (bitter) appears in many related characters such as 辣 (là, hot (spicy)), 辩 (biàn, to dispute), 辛 (xīn, (of taste) hot or pungent).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to resign
  2. to dismiss
  3. to decline

Etymology & Origin

辞

ideographicBitter 辛 words 舌

Decomposition: ⿰舌辛 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 辞

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
辞职verbcí zhíto resign5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
说辞nounshuō cíexcuse
措辞verbcuò cíwording
言辞nounyán cíwords
告辞verbgào cíto say goodbye
辞掉verbcí diàoto quit (one's job)
辞去verbcí qùto resign
辞呈nouncí chéng(written) resignation
辞退verbcí tuìto dismiss
致辞verbzhì cíto express in words or writing
辞典cí diǎnvariant of 詞典|词典
不辞而别verbbù cí ér biéto leave without saying good-bye
修辞verbxiū círhetoric
祝酒辞zhù jiǔ císhort speech given in proposing a toast
托辞verbtuō cívariant of 託詞|托词
辞世verbcí shì(literary) to pass away
81
Total compounds
26
As first character
53
As last character
21
As middle character

辞 appears in 81 compound words: 26 as the first character, 53 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 辞 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

职zhí
0.61823,498 co-occurrences
典diǎn
0.59216,188 co-occurrences
去qù
0.50211,310 co-occurrences
叙xù
0.4511,056 co-occurrences
恳kěn
0.428130 co-occurrences
措cuò
0.4281,228 co-occurrences
董dǒng
0.42416 co-occurrences
请qǐng
0.4131,616 co-occurrences
迫pò
0.3881,252 co-occurrences
卜bǔ
0.385518 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (14)

百辞莫辩bǎi cí mò biànHSK 7+

see 百口莫辯|百口莫辩

phrase
卑辞厚币bēi cí hòu bìHSK 7+

humble expression for generous donation

phrase
卑辞厚礼bēi cí hòu lǐHSK 7+

humble expression for generous gift

phrase
不辞劳苦bùcíláokǔHSK 5+

to spare no effort; to take pains; to take the trouble to; to go to the trouble of doing something

phrase
不辞辛苦bùcíxīnkǔHSK 5+

to spare no effort; to take pains; to take the trouble to; to go to the trouble of doing something

phrase
万死不辞wànsǐbùcíHSK 5+

to be willing to risk any danger to do one's duty

phrase
义不容辞yìbùróngcíHSK 5+

duty-bound; incumbent

phrase
义正辞严yìzhèngcíyánHSK 5+

morally just and in a stern tone

phrase
隐约其辞yǐn yuē qí cíHSK 6+

equivocal speech; to use vague or ambiguous language

phrase
与世长辞yǔshìchángcíHSK 5+

to die

phrase
在所不辞zài suǒ bù cíHSK 5+

not to refuse to (idiom); not to hesitate to

phrase
振振有辞zhèn zhèn yǒu cíHSK 7+

variant of 振振有詞|振振有词

phrase

Showing 12 of 14 idioms containing 辞.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们辞字的发音和笔顺。

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

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

Hk01.comFeb 2026

带女儿返公司逗利市!新同事2日后即辞职 网民斥厚脸皮:好肉酸

dài nǚ ér fǎn gōng sī dòu lì shì ! xīn tóng shì 2 rì hòu jí cí zhí wǎng mín chì hòu liǎn pí : hǎo ròu suān

Take your daughter back to the company to make fun of the market! The new colleague resigned after 2 days, and netizens reprimanded him for being cheeky: so sour

JiemianFeb 2026

卷入爱泼斯坦案件,美国前财长萨默斯从哈佛辞职

juǎn rù ài pō sī tǎn àn jiàn , měi guó qián cái cháng sà mò sī cóng hā fó cí zhí

Involved in the Epstein case, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Summers resigned from Harvard

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

与爱泼斯坦有牵连,美国前财长萨默斯将辞去哈佛教职

yǔ ài pō sī tǎn yǒu qiān lián , měi guó qián cái cháng sà mò sī jiāng cí qù hā fó jiào zhí

Involved with Epstein, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Summers will resign from Harvard University

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

法国罗浮宫馆长德卡尔请辞 马克龙感谢对方贡献

fǎ guó luó fú gōng guǎn cháng dé kǎ ěr qǐng cí mǎ kè lóng gǎn xiè duì fāng gòng xiàn

De Cartes, director of the Louvre Museum in France, resigned Macron thanked the other party for his contributions

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

...走,要么我们下台” 邱培栋:阿占巴基必须辞职

. . . zǒu , yāo má wǒ men xià tái 邱 péi dòng : ā zhàn bā jī bì xū cí zhí

... Let's go, or we step down" Qiu Peidong: Azan Baki must resign

Tatoeba

杰克很失望,并辞了职。

Jiékè hěn shīwàng, bìng cí le zhí.

Jack was really disappointed, and left his job.

Tatoeba

汤姆说他考虑辞职。

Tāngmǔ shuō tā kǎolǜ cízhí.

Tom said he's considered quitting his job.

Tatoeba

话说,你听说玛丽辞职了吗?

Huàshuō, nǐ tīngshuō Mǎlì cízhí le ma?

By the way, did you hear that Mary quit her job?

Tatoeba

你为什么这么含糊其辞?

Nǐ wèishénme zhème hánhu qí cí?

Why are you being so evasive?

Character Family

辛 Radical Family — Characters sharing the bitter radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced cí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 辞 (cí) mean in Chinese?
辞 (cí) primarily means "to resign." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1460 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 辞 have?
辞 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 辞?
The radical associated with 辞 is 辛 (bitter). This radical appears in many characters related to bitter.
What are the components of 辞?
辞 is composed of: 舌 (structural), 辛 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰舌辛 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 辞?
Common words with 辞 include: 辞职 (cí zhí, "to resign"); 说辞 (shuō cí, "excuse"); 措辞 (cuò cí, "wording"); 言辞 (yán cí, "words"); 告辞 (gào cí, "to say goodbye"). There are over 81 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 辞 (cí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cí: 此 (this), 次 (next in sequence), 词 (word), 刺 (thorn), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 辞 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 辞 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 辞 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.