笛 (dí): flute
笛 (dí) is a Chinese character meaning “flute.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺮ (structural) and 由 (structural). It ranks #2459 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 笛 a bamboo ⺮ flute 由. Its radical form 竹 (bamboo) appears in many related characters such as 笑 (xiào, to laugh), 第 (dì, (prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六[di4 liu4] "sixth")), 等 (děng, to wait for).
Definitions
- flute
Etymology & Origin
ideographicA bamboo ⺮ flute 由
Decomposition: ⿱⺮由 (layout: top-bottom)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 笛 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 警笛 | jǐng dí | siren |
| 笛子 | dí zi | bamboo flute |
| 长笛 | cháng dí | (Western) concert flute |
| 汽笛 | qì dí | steam whistle |
| 风笛 | fēng dí | bagpipes |
| 鸣笛 | míng dí | to hoot |
| 直笛 | zhí dí | (Tw) recorder (musical instrument) |
| 笛卡儿坐标制 | dí kǎ ér zuò biāo zhì | Cartesian coordinate system |
| 笛卡儿 | dí kǎ ér | René Descartes (1596-1650), French philosopher and author of Discours de la méthode 方法論|方法论 |
| 笛卡尔 | dí kǎ ěr | René Descartes (1596-1650) French philosopher |
| 笛沙格 | dí shā gé | Girard Desargues (1591–1661), French geometer |
| 木笛 | mù dí | recorder (musical instrument) (Tw) |
| 迷笛 | mí dí | Beijing Midi School of Music, est. 1993 (abbr. for 北京迷笛音樂學校|北京迷笛音乐学校[Bei3 jing1 Mi2 di2 Yin1 yue4 Xue2 xiao4]) |
| 陶笛 | táo dí | ocarina (musical instrument) |
| 羌笛 | qiāng dí | Qiang flute |
笛 appears in 18 compound words: 33 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 0 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 笛 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Example Sentences
笛声悠扬，动人心弦。
Dí shēng yōuyáng, dòng rén xīnxián.
The flute sounds melodious and touching.
我想学钢琴，吉它或长笛。
Wǒ xiǎng xué gāngqín, jítā huò chángdí.
I would like to learn to play the piano, guitar or flute.
鲍伯和玛丽演奏直笛。
Bàobó hé Mǎlì yǎnzòu zhídí .
Bob and Mary play the recorder.
你会不会教我学吹气风笛？
Nǐ huìbùhuì jiāo wǒ xué chuīqì fēngdí?
Can you teach me how to play the bagpipes?
我希望你练习了你的长笛独奏！
Wǒ xīwàng nǐ liànxí le nǐ de chángdí dúzòu!
I hope you practiced your flute solo!
汽笛声响起，船开始慢慢地驶离港口。
Qìdí shēngxiǎng qǐ, chuán kāishǐ mànmàn de shǐlí gǎngkǒu.
A whistle blew, and the boat slowly began to pull out of port.
汤姆不会吹短笛。
Tāngmǔ bù huì chuī duǎn dí.
Tom can't play the piccolo.
萨克斯管吹奏者常常兼演奏长笛，对主要乐器而言它们具有类似的指法。
Sàkèsīguǎn chuīzòu zhě chángcháng jiān yǎnzòu chángdí, duì zhǔyào yuèqì éryán tāmen jùyǒu lèisì de zhǐfǎ.
Saxophonists often double on flutes, which have similar fingerings to their primary instruments.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
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What characters sound the same as 笛 (dí)?
Is 笛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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