岂 (qǐ): how? (emphatic question)
岂 (qǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “how? (emphatic question).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 山 (structural) and 己 (phonetic). It ranks #1710 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 岂 is a compound character. Its radical form 山 (mountain) appears in many related characters such as 山 (shān, mountain), 岁 (suì, years old), 岸 (àn, bank).
Definitions
- how? (emphatic question)
Etymology & Origin
pictophoneticThis character is a compound form.
Decomposition: ⿱山己 (layout: top-bottom)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 岂 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 岂止adverb | qǐ zhǐ | not only |
| 岂有此理phrase | qǐ yǒu cǐ lǐ | how can this be so? (idiom) |
| 岂不adverb | qǐ bù | how couldn't...? |
| 岂非adverb | qǐ fēi | wouldn't it be ... ? |
| 岂料adverb | qǐ liào | who would have thought that |
| 岂敢verb | qǐ gǎn | how could one dare? |
岂 appears in 6 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 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 岂 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (1)
Example Sentences
岂字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。
kǎi zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .
The character "岂" has a very distinctive writing style that left a deep impression on me.
专访茅威涛：浩然旷达如东坡，生活岂不快哉
zhuān fǎng máo wēi tāo : hào rán kuàng dá rú dōng pō , shēng huó qǐ bù kuài 哉
An Exclusive Interview with Mao Weitao: With a Spirit as Magnanimous and Unfettered as Su Dongpo’s, Isn’t Life a Joy?
岂知世事难料，因将军进京染病去世，所借的半部手稿从此下落不明。
qǐ zhī shì shì nán liào , yīn jiāng jūn jìn jīng rǎn bìng qù shì , suǒ jiè de bàn bù shǒu gǎo cóng cǐ xià luò bù míng .
Little did anyone know that life is full of surprises: the general fell ill and died after traveling to the capital, and the half of the manuscript he had borrowed has been missing ever since.
那把两者结合起来——岂不是又酸甜平衡、又风味饱满？
nà bǎ liǎng zhě jié gě qǐ lái — — qǐ bù shì yòu suān tián píng héng , yòu fēng wèi bǎo mǎn ?
So why not combine the two—wouldn’t that result in a perfect balance of sweet and sour, with a rich, full-bodied flavor?
正论:一图岂能窥全貌 上楼再影费周章
zhèng lùn : yī tú qǐ néng kuī quán mào shàng lóu zài yǐng fèi zhōu zhāng
Straight Talk: Can a Single Image Really Capture the Whole Picture? Going Upstairs to Take Another Photo Is a Waste of Effort
龙七公:保护珍贵文物 岂可封闭管理
lóng qī gōng : bǎo hù zhēn guì wén wù qǐ kě fēng bì guǎn lǐ
Long Qigong: Protecting Precious Cultural Relics Should Not Mean Locking Them Away
每天都这样岂不是很无聊！
Měitiān dōu zhèyàng qǐbù shì hěn wúliáo!
Spending every day like this must be boring!
Character Family
山 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mountain radical
Homophones — Characters pronounced qǐ
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 岂 (qǐ) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 岂 and 纪?
How many strokes does 岂 have?
What is the radical of 岂?
What are the components of 岂?
What are common words containing 岂?
What characters sound the same as 岂 (qǐ)?
Is 岂 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 岂 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.