妮 (nī): girl, phonetic "ni" (in female names)

妮 (nī) is a Chinese character meaning “girl.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 尼 (phonetic). It ranks #1744 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 妮 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 她 (tā, she), 好 (hǎo, good).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. girl
  2. phonetic "ni" (in female names)

Etymology & Origin

妮

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女尼 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
安妮proper-nounān nīAnnie (name)
妮子nī zi(coll.) lass
惠特妮·休斯顿huì tè nī · xiū sī dùnWhitney Houston (1963-2012), American singer and actress
布里特妮bù lǐ tè nīBritney, Brittney or Brittany (name)
方妮fāng nīFanny (name)
布兰妮·斯皮尔斯bù lán nī · sī pí ěr sīBritney Spears (1981-), US pop singer
妮可·基德曼nī kě · jī dé mànNicole Kidman (1967-), film actress
妮维雅nī wéi yǎNivea, skin and body care brand
杨采妮yáng cǎi nīCharlie Young (1974-), Hong Kong actress and singer
达科塔·芬妮dá kē tǎ · fēn nīDakota Fanning, American actress
妮维娅nī wéi yàNivea, skin and body care brand
胡燕妮hú yān nīJenny Hu (1945-), Hong Kong actress
12
Total compounds
33
As first character
50
As last character
17
As middle character

妮 appears in 12 compound words: 33 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 17 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 妮 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

梅méi
0.50412 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

《铁达妮的号》由开心麻花演员黄才伦领衔主演。

tiě dá nī de hào yóu kāi xīn má huā yǎn yuán huáng cái lún lǐng xián zhǔ yǎn .

*The Call of the Taitani* stars Huang Cailun, an actor from Happy Mahua, in the lead role.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

中新社 记者 应妮 摄 同时,“汉中非遗好物市集”也在中央大厅同步开启。

zhōng xīn shè jì zhě yīng nī shè tóng shí , hàn zhōng fēi yí hǎo wù shì jí yě zài zhōng yāng dà tīng tóng bù kāi qǐ .

Photo by Ying Ni, China News Service. At the same time, the “Hanzhong Intangible Cultural Heritage Market” also opened in the Central Hall.

爱范儿Aug 2026

这也是李妮恩首次担任动作剧集主角。

zhè yě shì lǐ nī ēn shǒu cì dān rèn dòng zuò jù jí zhǔ jiǎo .

This is also Li Nien's first time starring in an action series.

少数派Aug 2026

大妮小妮 (+15) 在小宇宙听财经节目了解到,专业投资者普遍订阅了《财新周刊》。

dà nī xiǎo nī ( 1 5 ) zài xiǎo yǔ zhòu tīng cái jīng jié mù le jiě dào , zhuān yè tóu zī zhě pǔ biàn dìng yuè le cái xīn zhōu kān .

Dani and Xiao Ni (+15) learned from a finance program on Xiao Yuzi that professional investors generally subscribe to *Caixin Weekly*.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

中国扬琴的发展氛围给韦罗妮卡留下深刻印象。

zhōng guó yáng qín de fā zhǎn fēn wéi gěi wéi luó nī kǎ liú xià shēn kè yìn xiàng .

Veronica was deeply impressed by the atmosphere surrounding the development of the Chinese yangqin.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 妮 (nī) mean in Chinese?
妮 (nī) primarily means "girl." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #1744 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 妮 and 呢?
妮 (nī) and 呢 (ne) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 口 (same 尼 component).
How many strokes does 妮 have?
妮 is written with 8 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 妮?
The radical associated with 妮 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 妮?
妮 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 尼 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女尼 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 妮?
Common words with 妮 include: 安妮 (ān nī, "Annie (name)"); 妮子 (nī zi, "(coll.) lass"); 惠特妮·休斯顿 (huì tè nī · xiū sī dùn, "Whitney Houston (1963-2012), American singer and actress"); 布里特妮 (bù lǐ tè nī, "Britney, Brittney or Brittany (name)"); 方妮 (fāng nī, "Fanny (name)"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
Is 妮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 妮 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 妮 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.