凄 (qī): intense cold, frigid, dismal

凄 (qī) is a Chinese character meaning “intense cold.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 冫 (semantic) and 妻 (phonetic). It ranks #2282 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 凄 ice. Its radical form 冫 (ice) appears in many related characters such as 冷 (lěng, cold), 净 (jìng, clean), 准 (zhǔn, to allow).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. intense cold
  2. frigid
  3. dismal

Etymology & Origin

凄

pictophoneticice

Decomposition: ⿰冫妻 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
凄凉adjectiveqī liángmournful
凄惨adjectiveqī cǎnplaintive
凄厉adjectiveqī lìmournful (sound)
凄美adjectiveqī měipoignant
凄苦qī kǔbleak
凄清adjectiveqī qīngsomber
凄风苦雨qī fēng kǔ yǔlit. bleak wind and icy rain (idiom)
凄然adjectiveqī rándistressed
凄切adjectiveqī qièmournful
风雨凄凄fēng yǔ qī qīwretched wind and rain
凄楚adjectiveqī chǔsad
凄暗qī àndismal
凄迷qī mípained and bewildered
悲凄adjectivebēi qīpitiable
凄寒adjectiveqī háncold and desolate
24
Total compounds
92
As first character
4
As last character
4
As middle character

凄 appears in 24 compound words: 92 as the first character, 4 as the last, and 4 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 凄 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

凉liáng
0.593312 co-occurrences
惨cǎn
0.583228 co-occurrences
挟xié
0.50436 co-occurrences
惋wǎn
0.49118 co-occurrences
厉lì
0.48632 co-occurrences
腕wàn
0.47256 co-occurrences
婉wǎn
0.46170 co-occurrences
悲bēi
0.42172 co-occurrences
哀āi
0.40646 co-occurrences
苦kǔ
0.40284 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

风雨凄凄fēng yǔ qī qīHSK 7+

wretched wind and rain

phrase
凄风苦雨qī fēng kǔ yǔHSK 7+

lit. bleak wind and icy rain (idiom); fig. hardships; miserable circumstances

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好凄字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo qī zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "凄" correctly, one must master the proper stroke order.

少数派Jul 2026

这场短暂而盛大的凄美爱恋,宛如带着鲜血味道的深吻,使人反复回味。

zhè chǎng duǎn zàn ér shèng dà de qī měi ài liàn , 宛 rú dài zhe xiān xiě wèi dào de shēn wěn , shǐ rén fǎn fù huí wèi .

This brief yet magnificent and poignant romance is like a deep kiss tinged with the taste of blood—one that lingers in the memory.

少数派Jun 2026

她们的公路旅行故事一波三折,景色也时而凄凉时而浪漫,看到最后很难不让人热泪盈眶。

tā men de gōng lù lǚ háng gù shì yī bō sān zhé , jǐng sè yě shí ér qī liáng shí ér làng màn , kàn dào zuì hòu hěn nán bù ràng rén rè lèi yíng kuàng .

Their road trip story is full of twists and turns, with scenery that shifts from desolate to romantic; by the end, it’s hard not to be moved to tears.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

...播“毁粉丝帐号” 当众把装备卖光遭炎上 凄惨下场曝

. . . bō huǐ fěn sī zhàng hào dāng zhòng bǎ zhuāng bèi mài guāng zāo yán shàng qī cǎn xià chǎng pù

...Streamer "Destroys Fan Account," Sells Off All Gear in Public, Sparks Backlash, and Faces a Tragic End

TvbsMar 2026

半夜隔壁突传凄厉救命声!邻居吓疯探头看 破门惊见翁倒地...

bàn yè gé bì tū chuán qī lì jiù mìng shēng ! lín jū hè fēng tàn tóu kàn pò mén jīng jiàn wēng dǎo dì . . .

In the middle of the night, a piercing cry for help suddenly rang out from next door! Terrified, the neighbor peeked out and, upon breaking down the door, was shocked to find an elderly man lying on the floor...

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

伊朗战事重燃通膨威胁 全球政府债券市场凄风苦雨

yī lǎng zhàn shì chóng rán tōng péng wēi xié quán qiú zhèng fǔ zhài quàn shì chǎng qī fēng kǔ yǔ

The war in Iran reignites the threat of inflation, and the global government bond market is miserable

Tatoeba

我感到凄清与孤独。

Wǒ gǎndào qīqīng yǔ gūdú.

I felt sad and lonely.

Tatoeba

看着眼前凄凉的景象,我们不禁流下了泪来。

Kàn zhe yǎnqián qīliáng de jǐngxiàng, wǒmen bù jīn liú xià le lèi lái.

The pitiful sight moved us to tears.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 冫 (ice) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced qī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 凄 (qī) mean in Chinese?
凄 (qī) primarily means "intense cold." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2282 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 凄 and 热?
凄 (qī) and 热 (rè) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 凄 (cold) vs 热 (hot).
How many strokes does 凄 have?
凄 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 凄?
The radical associated with 凄 is 冫 (ice). This radical appears in many characters related to ice.
What are the components of 凄?
凄 is composed of: 冫 (semantic), 妻 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰冫妻 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 凄?
Common words with 凄 include: 凄凉 (qī liáng, "mournful"); 凄惨 (qī cǎn, "plaintive"); 凄厉 (qī lì, "mournful (sound)"); 凄美 (qī měi, "poignant"); 凄苦 (qī kǔ, "bleak"). There are over 24 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 凄 (qī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qī: 起 (to rise), 其 (his), 气 (gas), 期 (period, expect), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 凄 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 凄 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 凄 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.