绯 (fēi): dark red, purple silk

绯 (fēi) is a Chinese character meaning “dark red.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 纟 (semantic) and 非 (phonetic). It ranks #2973 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 绯 silk. Its radical form 纟 (silk) appears in many related characters such as 系 (xì, to connect), 累 (lěi, to accumulate), 绍 (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 纟 silk11 strokesFrequency #2973纟 semantic非 phonetic

Definitions

  1. dark red
  2. purple silk

Etymology & Origin

绯

pictophoneticsilk

Decomposition: ⿰纟非 (layout: left-right)

Components:纟semantic非phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
绯闻fēi wénsex scandal
绯红fēi hóngcrimson
绯胸鹦鹉fēi xiōng yīng wǔ(bird species of China) red-breasted parakeet (Psittacula alexandri)
3
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

绯 appears in 3 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 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 绯 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

丝sī
0.5601,074 co-occurrences
赐cì
0.555768 co-occurrences
闻wén
0.5331,422 co-occurrences
袋dài
0.508492 co-occurrences
碎suì
0.484468 co-occurrences
鱼yú
0.474540 co-occurrences
袍páo
0.450114 co-occurrences
鲤lǐ
0.44342 co-occurrences
红hóng
0.440618 co-occurrences
色sè
0.367930 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习绯字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

xué xí fēi zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "绯" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

SmzdmMar 2026

“红龙翱翔于绯红之天”网限RG 1/144 异端高达红...

hóng lóng 翱 xiáng yú fēi hóng zhī tiān wǎng xiàn R G 1 1 4 4 yì duān gāo dá hóng . . .

三立新聞網Mar 2026

昔离婚定居上海 周董绯闻女友参战浪姐7

xī lí hūn dìng jū shàng hǎi zhōu dǒng fēi wén nǚ yǒu cān zhàn làng jiě 7

Character Family

纟 Radical Family — Characters sharing the silk radical

绊bàn绑bǎng绷bēng编biān辫biàn缤bīn缠chán绸chóu纯chún绰chāo

Related Characters

系xì累lěi绍shào给gěi红hóng级jí纸zhǐ练liàn组zǔ经jīng

Homophones — Characters pronounced fēi

啡fēi匪fěi诽fěi飞fēi非fēi肥féi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 绯 (fēi) mean in Chinese?
绯 (fēi) primarily means "dark red." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2973 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 绯 and 灯?
绯 (fēi) and 灯 (dēng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 绯 (dark) vs 灯 (light).
How many strokes does 绯 have?
绯 is written with 11 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 绯?
The radical associated with 绯 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 绯?
绯 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 非 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟非 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 绯?
Common words with 绯 include: 绯闻 (fēi wén, "sex scandal"); 绯红 (fēi hóng, "crimson"); 绯胸鹦鹉 (fēi xiōng yīng wǔ, "(bird species of China) red-breasted parakeet (Psittacula alexandri)"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 绯 (fēi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fēi: 啡 ((used in loanwords for its phonetic value)), 匪 (bandit), 诽 (slander), 飞 (to fly), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 绯 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 绯 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 绯 with real-time feedback

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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.