(guǐ): disembodied spirit, ghost, devil, (suffix) person with a certain vice or addiction etc, sly, crafty, resourceful (variant of 詭|诡)

(guǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “disembodied spirit.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (ghost). It ranks #1041 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, a ghost with a scary face. Its radical form (ghost) appears in many related characters such as (kuí, chief), (hún, soul), (, (literary) soul).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: ghost10 strokesFrequency #1041

Definitions

  1. disembodied spirit
  2. ghost
  3. devil
  4. (suffix) person with a certain vice or addiction etc
  5. sly
  6. crafty
  7. resourceful (variant of 詭|诡)

Etymology & Origin

pictographicA ghost with a scary face

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
jiàn guǐabsurd
mó guǐdevil
guǐ húnghost
dǎn xiǎo guǐcoward
xiǎo guǐlittle demon (term of endearment for a child)
jiǔ guǐdrunkard
guǐ hùnto hang around
guǐ huàlie
nào guǐhaunted
zuì guǐdrunkard
sè guǐlecher
gǎo guǐto make mischief
guǐ zidevil (derog. term for foreign invaders)
guǐ liǎnwry face
lǎn guǐlazybones
100
Total compounds
42
As first character
51
As last character
7
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 42 as the first character, 51 as the last, and 7 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.

0.61145,630 co-occurrences
xiě
0.58947,754 co-occurrences
hún
0.55817,346 co-occurrences
0.52531,333 co-occurrences
guài
0.46810,062 co-occurrences
zhuō
0.4663,900 co-occurrences
饿è
0.4531,164 co-occurrences
0.435180 co-occurrences
dǎo
0.433516 co-occurrences
chù
0.4312,202 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (18)

gūhúnyěguǐHSK 7+

wandering soul that is unable to reincarnate; one who is in difficult circumstances and has nobody to lean on

phrase
guǐfǔshéngōngHSK 7+

superlative craftsmanship; supernaturally fine craft (as if done by the spirits)

phrase
guǐhuàliánpiānHSK 7+

to talk a lot of nonsense; to tell a series of untruths

phrase
guǐ jì duō duānHSK 7+

full of devilish tricks and cunning stratagems (idiom); sly; crafty

phrase
guǐmíxīnqiàoHSK 7+

to be possessed by a spirit and lose one's thinking ability; to be (unreasonably) obsessed with something

phrase
guǐ mō nǎo kéHSK 7+

(idiom) muddled; momentarily confused

phrase
guǐ pà è rénHSK 7+

lit. ghosts are afraid of evil too; an evil person fears someone even more evil (idiom)

phrase
使guǐ shǐ shén chāiHSK 7+

demons and gods at work (idiom); unexplained event crying out for a supernatural explanation; curious coincidence

phrase
láng háo guǐ kūHSK 7+

lit. wolves howling, devils groaning (idiom); pathetic screams

phrase
niúguǐshéshénHSK 7+

all sorts of bad things, especially people; cow demons and snake spirits

phrase
使shén chāi guǐ shǐHSK 7+

the work of gods and devils (idiom); unexplained event crying out for a supernatural explanation; curious coincidence

phrase
shén gōng guǐ fǔHSK 7+

supernaturally fine craft (idiom); the work of the Gods; uncanny workmanship; superlative craftsmanship

phrase

Showing 12 of 18 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le guǐ zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "ghost" in the dictionary.

EttodayFeb 2026

5双话题鞋款!TWICE Momo穿冢虎流苏款太犯规、小CK亚洲限定超难抢

5 shuāng huà tí xié kuǎn ! T W I C E M o m o chuān guǐ 冢 hǔ liú sū kuǎn tài fàn guī , xiǎo C K yà zhōu xiàn dìng chāo nán qiǎng

5 pairs of topical shoes! TWICE Momo wears Onizuka Tiger tassels too foul, and the small CK Asia limited is super difficult to grab

Google NewsFeb 2026

...ORPG‘新・天上碑’二次神器装备“天神月”実装! - PR TIMES

. . . O R P G xīn tiān shàng bēi èr cì shén qì zhuāng bèi tiān shén guǐ yuè 実 zhuāng ! P R T I M E S

... ORPG 'New Heavenly Monument' Secondary Artifact Equipment "Tenjin Demon Moon" is now available! - PR TIMES

財経新聞:経済・株式の最新ニュースFeb 2026

...ORPG‘新・天上碑’二次神器装备“天神月”実装!

. . . O R P G xīn tiān shàng bēi èr cì shén qì zhuāng bèi tiān shén guǐ yuè 実 zhuāng !

... ORPG 'New Heavenly Monument' Secondary Artifact Equipment "Tenjin Demon Moon" is now available!

LtnFeb 2026

MLB》邓恺威神初登板飙2K! 大都会334.6亿三连...

M L B dèng 恺 wēi guǐ shén chū dēng bǎn biāo 2 K ! dà dōu huì 3 3 4 . 6 yì sān lián . . .

MLB" Hawick Tang made his first appearance and soared 2K! The Mets are 33.46 billion three-time consecutive...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

迷心窍要当心!3星座马年容易上当...狮...

guǐ mí xīn qiào yāo dāng xīn ! 3 xīng zuò mǎ nián róng yì shàng dāng . . . shī . . .

Be careful! 3 zodiac signs are easy to be fooled in the Year of the Horse... The lion...

Tatoeba

我在给魔当辩护士。

Wǒ zài gěi móguǐ dāng biànhùshì.

I'm just playing the devil's advocate.

Tatoeba

这人把灵魂卖给魔

Zhè rén bǎ línghún mài gěi móguǐ.

The man sold his soul to the devil.

Tatoeba

地狱空空荡荡,魔都在人间。

Dìyù kōngkōng-dàngdàng, móguǐ dōu zài rénjiān.

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!

Tatoeba

小孩和酒不撒谎。

Xiǎohái hé jiǔguǐ bù sāhuǎng.

Children and drunks don't lie.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the ghost radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced guǐ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鬼 (guǐ) mean in Chinese?
鬼 (guǐ) primarily means "disembodied spirit." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1041 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 鬼 have?
鬼 is written with 10 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 鬼?
The radical associated with 鬼 is 鬼 (ghost). This radical appears in many characters related to ghost.
What are the components of 鬼?
鬼 is composed of: undefined (phonetic). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鬼?
Common words with 鬼 include: 见鬼 (jiàn guǐ, "absurd"); 魔鬼 (mó guǐ, "devil"); 鬼魂 (guǐ hún, "ghost"); 胆小鬼 (dǎn xiǎo guǐ, "coward"); 小鬼 (xiǎo guǐ, "little demon (term of endearment for a child)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鬼 (guǐ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guǐ: 归 (to return), 龟 (tortoise), 规 (compass), 闺 (small arched door), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 鬼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 鬼 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.