(): to stand, to set up, to establish

() is a Chinese character meaning “to stand.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural), (structural) and (structural). It ranks #197 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, a man standing on the ground 一. Its radical form (stand) appears in many related characters such as (zhàn, station), (tóng, child), (jìng, to compete).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to stand
  2. to set up
  3. to establish

Etymology & Origin

pictographicA man standing on the ground 一

Decomposition: ⿳亠丷一 (layout: top-middle-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adverblì kèimmediately5
verbjiàn lìto establish5
verb/adjectivedú lìindependent5
adverblì jíimmediately5
nounlì chǎngposition6
verbchéng lìto establish5
verbshè lìto set up5
verbshù lìto set up6
verbchuàng lìto establish6
verbduì lìto oppose6
verbquè lìto establish6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
qǐ lìto stand
lì mǎat once
zhōu lìstate-run
gōng lìpublic (e.g. school, hospital)
gū lìto isolate
lì zhèngto stand straight
sī lìprivately-run
zhōng lìneutral
lì fǎto enact laws
lì ànto register (to an official organism)
zhàn lìto stand
lì tǐthree-dimensional
zì lìindependent
guó lìnational
dào lìa handstand
100
Total compounds
41
As first character
49
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 41 as the first character, 49 as the last, and 10 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.

0.676429,775 co-occurrences
chéng
0.6111,722,624 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.583957,059 co-occurrences
chù
0.5218,892 co-occurrences
shè
0.505301,074 co-occurrences
táo
0.50173,134 co-occurrences
0.48197,884 co-occurrences
0.470502,242 co-occurrences
0.4644,818 co-occurrences
chuàng
0.451103,200 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (25)

āihuǐgǔlìHSK 7+

to be emaciated with grief at one's parents' death

phrase
dú lì xuān yánHSK 5+

Declaration of Independence

phrase
érlìzhīniánHSK 5+

thirty years old

phrase
gōnglì xuéxiàoHSK 5+

public school; state school

noun
gūlìwúyuánHSK 6+

isolated without external support

phrase
gūlìzǐ bōHSK 7+

soliton

noun
hèlìjīqúnHSK 7+

an outstanding person in a group of common people

phrase
lìfǎ wěiyuánHSK 6+

legislator; member of the Legislative Yuan

noun
竿lìgānjiànyǐngHSK 7+

producing instant results; having immediate effect

phrase
lì gōng shú zuìHSK 7+

to redeem oneself; to atone

phrase
lìtǐ jǐhéHSK 5+

solid geometry; stereometry

noun
lìtǐ jiāochāHSK 5+

grade separation

noun

Showing 12 of 25 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

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

Mastering the character "立" requires repeated practice to achieve neatness.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

川普:加征15%关税即生效 全球贸易重返不确定性时代

chuān pǔ : jiā zhēng 1 5 guān shuì lì jí shēng xiào quán qiú mào yì chóng fǎn bù què dìng xìng shí dài

Trump: The 15% tariff will take effect immediately Global trade returns to an era of uncertainty

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

世界杯商机在即 西南管理区敦促酒店业即行动

shì jiè bēi shāng jī zài jí xī nán guǎn lǐ qū dūn cù jiǔ diàn yè lì jí háng dòng

World Cup business opportunity is imminent Southwest Management Region urges the hospitality industry to act now

東森新聞Feb 2026

法院迁址“新地点”! 韩国瑜抛“征收圆山...

lì fǎ yuàn qiān zhǐ xīn dì diǎn ! hán guó 瑜 pāo zhēng shōu yuán shān . . .

The Legislative Yuan moved to a "new location"! Han Yu threw "expropriation of Yuanshan...

UnwireFeb 2026

Stop Killing Games 成 NGO 组织 转型长期倡议平台推动游戏...

S t o p K i l l i n g G a m e s chéng lì N G O zǔ zhī zhuǎn xíng cháng qī chàng yì píng tái tuī dòng yóu xì . . .

Stop Killing Games Launches NGO Transformation Long-Term Initiative Platform to Drive Gaming...

百度新闻Feb 2026

预见金马|财通证券资管马晓:厚植金融为民底色,以..

yù jiàn jīn mǎ cái tōng zhèng quàn zī guǎn mǎ xiǎo lì : hòu zhí jīn róng wéi mín de sè , yǐ . .

Foresight Golden Horse|Caitong Securities Asset Management Ma Xiaoli: Cultivate finance as the background of the people, to:

Tatoeba

为了调查物价,成了一个委员会。

Wèile diàochá wùjià, chénglì le yī gè wěiyuánhuì.

A committee was constituted to investigate prices.

Tatoeba

瑞士是一个中的国家。

Ruìshì shì yī gèzhōng lì de guójiā.

Switzerland is a neutral country.

Tatoeba

有些情况之下,这条规则不能成

Yǒuxiē qíngkuàng zhīxià, zhè tiáoguī zé bù néng chénglì.

There are some cases where the rule does not hold good.

Tatoeba

他没遗嘱就死了。

Tā méi lì yízhǔ jiù sǐ le.

He died without a will.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the stand radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 立 (lì) mean in Chinese?
立 (lì) primarily means "to stand." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #197 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 立 and 下?
立 (lì) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 立 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 立 have?
立 is written with 5 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 立?
The radical associated with 立 is 立 (stand). This radical appears in many characters related to stand.
What are the components of 立?
立 is composed of: 亠 (structural), 丷 (structural), 一 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿳亠丷一 with a top-middle-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 立?
Common words with 立 include: 立刻 (lì kè, "immediately"); 建立 (jiàn lì, "to establish"); 独立 (dú lì, "independent"); 立即 (lì jí, "immediately"); 立场 (lì chǎng, "position"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 立 (lì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lì: 厘 (Li (c. 2000 BC), sixth of the legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God, also known as Ai 哀), 礼 (abbr. for 禮記|礼记, Classic of Rites), 李 (plum, surname Li), 里 (lining), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 立 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 立 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.