奇 (qí): strange, odd, weird, wonderful, surprisingly, unusually

奇 (qí) is a Chinese character meaning “strange.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 大 (structural) and 可 (structural). It ranks #563 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 奇 a person 大 riding a horse 可. Its radical form 大 (big) appears in many related characters such as 大 (dà, big), 天 (tiān, day), 太 (tài, highest).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. strange
  2. odd
  3. weird
  4. wonderful
  5. surprisingly
  6. unusually

Etymology & Origin

奇

ideographicA person 大 riding a horse 可

Decomposition: ⿱大可 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 奇

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
奇怪adjectiveqí guàistrange3
奇迹nounqí jìvariant of 奇蹟|奇迹5
神奇adjectiveshén qímagical6
好奇adjectivehào qíinquisitive5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
传奇nounchuán qílegendary
奇妙adjectiveqí miàowonderful
惊奇adjectivejīng qíto be amazed
米奇nounmǐ qíMickey or Mitch (name)
道奇dào qíDodge, US automobile brand, division of Chrysler LLC
奇特adjectiveqí tèpeculiar
奇异adjectiveqí yìfantastic
离奇adjectivelí qíodd
好奇心nounhào qí xīninterest in sth
出奇adjectivechū qíextraordinary
新奇adjectivexīn qínovel
曲奇nounqū qícookie (loanword via Cantonese 曲奇 kuk1 kei4)
稀奇adjectivexī qírare
卡布奇诺nounkǎ bù qí nuòcappuccino (loanword)
奇才nounqí cáigenius
100
Total compounds
56
As first character
35
As last character
9
As middle character

奇 appears in 100 compound words: 56 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 9 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 奇 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

怪guài
0.57117,543 co-occurrences
幻huàn
0.56816,928 co-occurrences
维wéi
0.54532,232 co-occurrences
妙miào
0.5237,502 co-occurrences
侠xiá
0.4331,486 co-occurrences
迹jì
0.4325,039 co-occurrences
诺nuò
0.4317,202 co-occurrences
唐táng
0.42421 co-occurrences
里lǐ
0.40827,914 co-occurrences
异yì
0.4043,970 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (23)

安克雷奇ĀnkèléiqíHSK 6+

Anchorage (a city in Alaska, United States)

不足为奇bùzúwéiqíHSK 3+

to be commonplace and not at all surprising

phrase
出奇制胜chūqízhìshèngHSK 5+

to win by a surprise move

phrase
翻空出奇fān kōng chū qíHSK 4+

to overturn empty convention, and display originality (idiom); new and different ideas

phrase
卡拉季奇KǎlājìqíHSK 4+

a transliteration of the Serbo-Croatian surname Karadžić

米奇老鼠Mǐqí LǎoshǔHSK 5+

Mickey Mouse

拍案惊奇pāi'ànjīngqíHSK 4+

to be surprised by the excellence (of something)

phrase
平淡无奇píng dàn wú qíHSK 5+

ordinary and mediocre (idiom); nothing to write home about

phrase
奇耻大辱qíchǐdàrǔHSK 7+

deep humiliation and outrageous shame

phrase
奇花异卉qí huā yì huìHSK 7+

see 奇花異草|奇花异草

phrase
奇谈怪论qítánguàilùnHSK 4+

absurd argument or remark

phrase
奇文共赏qíwéngòngshǎngHSK 5+

to appreciate an unusually wonderful piece of writing together

phrase

Showing 12 of 23 idioms containing 奇.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个奇字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě jī zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "奇" had different meanings in classical Chinese.

風傳媒Feb 2026

战争传奇、奥运金牌、救难英雄、凶案受害者家属 美...

zhàn zhēng chuán qí , ào yùn jīn pái , jiù nán yīng xióng , xiōng àn shòu hài zhě jiā shǔ měi . . .

War legends, Olympic gold medals, rescue heroes, families of murder victims Beauty...

TvbsFeb 2026

...冰!四川高速路铺“电热毯” 一键除冰超神奇

. . . bīng ! sì chuān gāo sù lù pù diàn rè tǎn yī jiàn chú bīng chāo shén qí

... Ice! Sichuan Expressway paving "electric blanket" one-click de-icing is super magical

LtnFeb 2026

江肇国批公务机关贴“马上有钱”春联很奇怪 今天有单位换掉了

jiāng zhào guó pī gōng wù jī guān tiē mǎ shàng yǒu qián chūn lián hěn qí guài jīn tiān yǒu dān wèi huàn diào le

Jiang Zhaoguo criticized the public agency for posting "money soon" Spring Festival couplets are very strange Today some units have been replaced

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

王赫奇:越来越多外国人来马过新年?

wáng hè qí : yuè lái yuè duō wài guó rén lái mǎ guò xīn nián ?

Wang Heqi: More and more foreigners are coming to Malaysia for the New Year?

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|网球传奇齐聚上海,精彩球技点燃新春佳节

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng wǎng qiú chuán qí qí jù shàng hǎi , jīng cǎi qiú jì diǎn rán xīn chūn jiā jié

Tennis legends gathered in Shanghai, and their wonderful skills ignited the Spring Festival

Tatoeba

她那么匆匆忙忙的,你不觉得很奇怪吗?

Tā nàme cōngcōng máng máng de, nǐ bù juéde hěn qíguài ma?

Don't you think it odd that she was in such a hurry?

Tatoeba

這是去帕克里奇的巴士?

Zhè shì qù pà kè lǐ qí de bāshì?

Is this the bus for Park Ridge?

Tatoeba

麦克叫他的狗波奇吗?

Màikè jiào tā de gǒu bō qí ma?

Does Mike call his dog Pochi?

Tatoeba

这是巧克力曲奇吗?

Zhè shì qiǎokèlì qǔqí ma?

Is this a chocolate chip cookie?

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 奇 (qí) mean in Chinese?
奇 (qí) primarily means "strange." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #563 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 奇 have?
奇 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 奇?
The radical associated with 奇 is 大 (big). This radical appears in many characters related to big.
What are the components of 奇?
奇 is composed of: 大 (structural), 可 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱大可 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 奇?
Common words with 奇 include: 奇怪 (qí guài, "strange"); 奇迹 (qí jì, "variant of 奇蹟|奇迹"); 神奇 (shén qí, "magical"); 好奇 (hào qí, "inquisitive"); 传奇 (chuán qí, "legendary"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 奇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 奇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 奇 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.