倪 (ní): surname Ni, (literary) small child, (literary) limit, bound, extremity

倪 (ní) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) small child.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (structural) and 兒 (structural). It ranks #3654 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 倪 a young child 兒. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 你 (nǐ, you), 他 (tā, he).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. surname Ni
  2. (literary) small child
  3. (literary) limit
  4. bound
  5. extremity

Etymology & Origin

倪

ideographicA young child 兒

Decomposition: ⿰亻兒 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
端倪nounduān níboundary
不可端倪bù kě duān níimpossible to get even an outline (idiom)
狄俄倪索斯dí é ní suǒ sīDionysus, the god of wine in Greek mythology
一窥端倪yī kuī duān níto infer easily
倪柝声ní tuò shēngNi Tuosheng or Watchman Nee (1903-1972), influential Chinese Christian
倪嗣冲ní sì chōngNi Sichong (1868-1924), general closely linked to Yuan Shikai 袁世凱|袁世凯 during his unsuccessful 1915 b...
倪桂珍ní guì zhēnNi Guizhen or Ni Kwei-Tseng (1869 - 1931), mother of Song Ailing 宋藹齡|宋蔼龄, Song Qingling 宋慶齡|宋庆龄[Song...
熊倪xióng níXiong Ni (1974-), Chinese diving athlete
俾倪bǐ níparapet
旄倪mào nívariant of 耄倪
耄倪mào níold and young
倪匡ní kuāngNi Kuang (1935–2022), Chinese novelist and screenwriter
12
Total compounds
33
As first character
58
As last character
8
As middle character

倪 appears in 12 compound words: 33 as the first character, 58 as the last, and 8 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Oct 2026

闫妮、叶童、倪虹洁三位演员同台飙戏,有笑有泪,温暖治愈。

yán nī , yè tóng , ní hóng jié sān wèi yǎn yuán tóng tái biāo xì , yǒu xiào yǒu lèi , wēn nuǎn zhì yù .

Actresses Yan Ni, Ye Tong, and Ni Hongjie share the stage in a powerful performance that alternates between laughter and tears, offering a warm and healing experience.

爱范儿Sep 2026

倪军认为,钠离子电池和凝聚态电池可以兼容现有生产线,更接近规模化应用。

ní jūn rèn wéi , nà lí zǐ diàn chí hé níng jù tài diàn chí kě yǐ jiān róng xiàn yǒu shēng chǎn xiàn , gèng jiē jìn guī mó huà yīng yòng .

Ni Jun believes that sodium-ion batteries and solid-state batteries are compatible with existing production lines and are closer to large-scale application.

IT之家Sep 2026

宁德时代首席制造官倪军:会造车不一定会造电池

níng dé shí dài shǒu xí zhì zào guān ní jūn : huì zào chē bù yī dìng huì zào diàn chí

Ni Jun, Chief Manufacturing Officer at CATL: Just because you can build cars doesn’t mean you can build batteries

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

倪肯弹着布朗族牛腿琴演唱《结下情谊万年长》。

ní kěn dàn zhe bù lǎng zú niú tuǐ qín yǎn chàng jié xià qíng yì wàn nián cháng .

Ni Ken played the Brown ethnic group’s cow-leg lute while singing “A Bond of Friendship That Will Last for Ten Thousand Years.”

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

社会阶层分化已露端倪,“礼制”初具雏形,文明化进程悄然铺展开来。

shè huì jiē céng fēn huà yǐ lù duān ní , lǐ zhì chū jù chú xíng , wén míng huà jìn chéng qiǎo rán pù zhǎn kāi lái .

Signs of social stratification were beginning to emerge, the "system of rituals" was taking shape, and the process of civilization was quietly unfolding.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 倪 (ní) mean in Chinese?
倪 (ní) primarily means "(literary) small child." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3654 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 倪 and 大?
倪 (ní) and 大 (dà) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 倪 (small) vs 大 (big).
How many strokes does 倪 have?
倪 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 倪?
The radical associated with 倪 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 倪?
倪 is composed of: 亻 (structural), 兒 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻兒 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 倪?
Common words with 倪 include: 端倪 (duān ní, "boundary"); 不可端倪 (bù kě duān ní, "impossible to get even an outline (idiom)"); 狄俄倪索斯 (dí é ní suǒ sī, "Dionysus, the god of wine in Greek mythology"); 一窥端倪 (yī kuī duān ní, "to infer easily"); 倪柝声 (ní tuò shēng, "Ni Tuosheng or Watchman Nee (1903-1972), influential Chinese Christian"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
Is 倪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 倪 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 倪 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.