溉 (gài): to irrigate

溉 (gài) is a Chinese character meaning “to irrigate.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 既 (phonetic). It ranks #2927 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 溉 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 氵 water12 strokesFrequency #2927氵 semantic既 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to irrigate

Etymology & Origin

溉

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵既 (layout: left-right)

Components:氵semantic既phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
灌溉guàn gàito irrigate
地面灌溉dì miàn guàn gàisurface irrigation
灌溉渠guàn gài qúirrigation channel
溉涤gài díto wash
4
Total compounds
25
As first character
50
As last character
25
As middle character

溉 appears in 4 compound words: 25 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 25 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 溉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

灌guàn
0.86034,398 co-occurrences
渠qú
0.5572,244 co-occurrences
水shuǐ
0.4619,078 co-occurrences
农nóng
0.4351,902 co-occurrences
涝lào
0.42896 co-occurrences
沾zhān
0.419168 co-occurrences
积jī
0.4111,998 co-occurrences
洪hóng
0.4081,248 co-occurrences
田tián
0.4053,546 co-occurrences
屠tú
0.405486 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

孩子们喜欢在清澈的溉边玩耍，捉小鱼小虾。

hái zǐ men xǐ huān zài qīng 澈 de gài biān wán shuǎ , zhuō xiǎo yú xiǎo xiā .

Children love to play along the clear irrigation ditches, catching little fish and shrimp.

Character Family

氵 Radical Family — Characters sharing the water radical

澳ào滨bīn濒bīn波bō沧cāng测cè潮cháo澈chè澄chéng池chí

Related Characters

水shuǐ汉hàn汽qì没méi洗xǐ渴kě永yǒng求qiú河hé油yóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced gài

概gài该gāi改gǎi丐gài钙gài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 溉 (gài) mean in Chinese?
溉 (gài) primarily means "to irrigate." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2927 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 溉 and 慨?
溉 (gài) and 慨 (kǎi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 忄 (same 既 component).
How many strokes does 溉 have?
溉 is written with 12 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 溉?
The radical associated with 溉 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 溉?
溉 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 既 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵既 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 溉?
Common words with 溉 include: 灌溉 (guàn gài, "to irrigate"); 地面灌溉 (dì miàn guàn gài, "surface irrigation"); 灌溉渠 (guàn gài qú, "irrigation channel"); 溉涤 (gài dí, "to wash"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 溉 (gài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gài: 概 ((bound form) general), 该 (should), 改 (to change), 丐 (to beg for alms), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 溉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 溉 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.