(): grief, sorrow, (bound form) relatives, kin

() is a Chinese character meaning “grief.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2251 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a younger brother 尗 killed in a war 戈. Its radical form (halberd) appears in many related characters such as (, I), (chéng, to succeed), (huò, maybe).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. grief
  2. sorrow
  3. (bound form) relatives
  4. kin

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA younger brother 尗 killed in a war 戈

Decomposition: ⿵戊尗 (layout: surround-from-top)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounqīn qia relative (i.e. family relation)4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xiū qī xiāng guānto share the same interests (idiom)
huáng qīn guó qīthe emperor relatives (idiom)
bēi qīmournful
zǒu qīn qito visit relatives
qī jì guāngQi Jiguang (1528-1588), military leader
jūn zi tǎn dàng dàng , xiǎo rén cháng qī qīgood people are at peace with themselves, (but) there is no rest for the wicked
zì yí yī qīto create trouble for oneself (idiom)
qī yǒurelatives and friends
gǔ pén zhī qīdrumming on a bowl in grief (idiom, refers to Zhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 zi3] grieving for his lost wife)
xióng qīn qi(coll.) busybody relative
qī shǔrelative
qī zúfamily members
xiāng qia relative
āi qīsorrow
qī yìrelation
17
Total compounds
35
As first character
53
As last character
12
As middle character

appears in 17 compound words: 35 as the first character, 53 as the last, and 12 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

shù
0.5642,676 co-occurrences
qīn
0.55212,710 co-occurrences
zāo
0.48910 co-occurrences
wài
0.39612,870 co-occurrences
yīn
0.394798 co-occurrences
guì
0.3811,146 co-occurrences
péng
0.3781,296 co-occurrences
xūn
0.377576 co-occurrences
āi
0.357384 co-occurrences
yáng
0.356558 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

huángqīnguóqīHSK 6+

member of royalty or royal household; royal person; person having powerful connections

phrase
xiūqīxiāngguānHSK 4+

to share joys and sorrows; to be bound together by a common cause; to be in the same boat

phrase
zì yí yī qīHSK 7+

to create trouble for oneself (idiom)

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好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 "戚" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

SmzdmMar 2026

23万买了小米SU7,过年期间再开亲的特斯拉,发现不是一个档次

2 3 wàn mǎi le xiǎo mǐ S U 7 , guò nián qī jiān zài kāi qīn qī de tè sī lā , fā xiàn bù shì yī gè dàng cì

I bought a Xiaomi SU7 for 230,000 yuan, and when I drove my relative’s Tesla over the Chinese New Year, I realized they’re in completely different leagues.

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

狮城双尸命案 亲拜年惊揭夫妻陈尸家中

shī chéng shuāng shī mìng àn qīn qī bài nián jīng jiē fū qī chén shī jiā zhōng

Lion City double corpse murder case relatives New Year's greetings shocked the husband and wife at home

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

德国羽赛/林俊易轰垮印度前球王 携又仁闯男单8强

dé guó yǔ sài lín jùn yì hōng kuǎ yìn dù qián qiú wáng xié qī yòu rén chuǎng nán dān 8 qiáng

German Badminton/Lin Junyi defeated the former Indian champion and broke into the men's singles top 8 with Qi Youren

Hk01.comFeb 2026

与亲饮茶遭爸爸叫扮争埋单!港男不慎争赢焗畀$...

yǔ qīn qī yǐn chá zāo bà bà jiào bàn zhēng mái dān ! gǎng nán bù shèn zhēng yíng 焗 畀 . . .

Drinking tea with relatives was called by Dad to pretend to pay the bill! Hong Kong man accidentally won and baked $...

StheadlineFeb 2026

护花使者|广东美女拜年遭亲催婚 6岁侄仔妙语反击|有片

hù huā shǐ zhě guǎng dōng měi nǚ bài nián zāo qīn qī cuī hūn 6 suì zhí zǐ miào yǔ fǎn jī yǒu piàn

Flower Protector|Guangdong beauty was urged to get married by relatives for New Year's greetings, and her 6-year-old nephew counterattacked with a witty remark|There is a film

Tatoeba

你是不是长岛家的亲

Nǐ shì bù shì Chángdǎo jiā de qīnqi?

Are you related to the Nagashimas?

Tatoeba

她没有任何亲朋友照顾她。

Tā méiyǒu rènhé qīnqi péngyou zhàogu tā.

She doesn't have any friends or relatives to take care of her.

Tatoeba

我们村里所有的村民几乎彼此都是亲

Wǒmen cūnlǐ suǒyǒu de cūnmín jīhū bǐcǐ dōu shì qīnqi.

Almost everyone in our village is related to one another.

Tatoeba

我常常访问我的亲

Wǒ chángcháng fǎngwèn wǒ de qīnqi.

I often visit my relatives.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 戚 (qī) mean in Chinese?
戚 (qī) primarily means "grief." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2251 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 戚 have?
戚 is written with 11 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 戚?
The radical associated with 戚 is 戈 (halberd). This radical appears in many characters related to halberd.
What are the components of 戚?
戚 is composed of: 戊 (structural), 尗 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵戊尗 with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 戚?
Common words with 戚 include: 亲戚 (qīn qi, "a relative (i.e. family relation)"); 休戚相关 (xiū qī xiāng guān, "to share the same interests (idiom)"); 皇亲国戚 (huáng qīn guó qī, "the emperor relatives (idiom)"); 悲戚 (bēi qī, "mournful"); 走亲戚 (zǒu qīn qi, "to visit relatives"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 戚 (qī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qī: 七 (seven), 妻 (wife), 期 (period, expect), 齐 ((name of states and dynasties at several different periods)), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 戚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 戚 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.