汽 (qì): steam, vapor

汽 (qì) is a Chinese character meaning “steam.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (structural) and 气 (structural). It ranks #1195 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 汽 liquid 氵 gas 气; 气 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 没 (méi, (negative prefix for verbs) have not).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. steam
  2. vapor

Etymology & Origin

汽

ideographicLiquid 氵 gas 气; 气 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰氵气 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 汽

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
汽车nounqì chēcar3
汽油nounqì yóugasoline5
汽水nounqì shuǐsoda pop4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蒸汽nounzhēng qìsteam
汽车站nounqì chē zhànbus stop
汽笛nounqì dísteam whistle
汽化器nounqì huà qìcarburetor
小汽车xiǎo qì chēcompact car
汽艇nounqì tǐngmotorboat
长途汽车nouncháng tú qì chēlong-distance coach
汽酒nounqì jiǔsparkling wine
汽缸nounqì gāngcylinder (of steam engine or internal combustion engine)
汽船nounqì chuánsteamboat
出租汽车nounchū zū qì chētaxi
汽化verbqì huàto boil
水汽nounshuǐ qìwater vapor
蒸汽机nounzhēng qì jīsteam engine
汽修nounqì xiūauto repair
57
Total compounds
53
As first character
7
As last character
40
As middle character

汽 appears in 57 compound words: 53 as the first character, 7 as the last, and 40 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 汽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

蒸zhēng
0.73219,184 co-occurrences
车chē
0.62974,279 co-occurrences
缸gāng
0.5703,746 co-occurrences
辆liàng
0.4785,176 co-occurrences
油yóu
0.47012,096 co-occurrences
擎qíng
0.4412,076 co-occurrences
胀zhàng
0.432464 co-occurrences
私sī
0.4293,742 co-occurrences
锅guō
0.419480 co-occurrences
赁lìn
0.412220 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

出租汽车chūzū qìchēHSK 3+

taxi; cab

noun
大众汽车Dàzhòng QìchēHSK 4+

Volkswagen (car brand)

公共汽车gōnggòng qìchēHSK 3+

public bus; town bicycle

noun
汽车号牌qì chē hào páiHSK 4+

vehicle registration plate; license plate

phrase
汽车旅馆qìchē lǚguǎnHSK 3+

motel, motor hotel

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条汽流经三个省份,滋养了沿岸的农田。

zhè tiáo qì liú jīng sān gě shěng fèn , zī yǎng le yán àn de nóng tián .

This airflow traverses three provinces, nourishing the farmland along its path.

LtnFeb 2026

在汽旅毒杀2男!韩国蛇蝎美人照片曝光 IG粉...

zài qì lǚ dú shā 2 nán ! hán guó shé 蝎 měi rén zhào piàn pù guāng I G fěn . . .

Poisoned 2 men in the automobile tour! Korean femme fatale photos exposed IG fans...

InvestingFeb 2026

沃尔沃汽车因电池过热风险召回超4万辆EX30

wò ěr wò qì chē yīn diàn chí guò rè fēng xiǎn zhào huí chāo 4 wàn liàng E X 3 0

Volvo Cars recalled more than 40,000 EX30s due to the risk of battery overheating

Investing 香港Feb 2026

富豪汽车因电池过热风险召回逾4万辆EX30

fù háo qì chē yīn diàn chí guò rè fēng xiǎn zhào huí yú 4 wàn liàng E X 3 0

Volvo Automobile recalled more than 40,000 EX30s due to the risk of battery overheating

It之家Feb 2026

广汽本田推出雅阁 e:PHEV 老客户复购价...

guǎng qì běn tián tuī chū yǎ gé e : P H E V lǎo kè hù fù gòu jià . . .

Guangqi Honda launches Accord e:PHEV repurchase price for old customers...

百度新闻Feb 2026

一辆载有8名中国游客的汽车在俄贝加尔湖沉没

yī liàng zài yǒu 8 míng zhōng guó yóu kè de qì chē zài é bèi jiā ěr hú chén méi

A car carrying eight Chinese tourists sank in Lake Baikal

Tatoeba

公共汽车上发生什么了?

Gōnggòngqìchē shàng fāshēng shénme le?

What happened on the bus?

Tatoeba

你是否坐公共汽车去上学?

Nǐ shìfǒu zuò gōnggòngqìchē qù shàngxué?

Do you go to school by bus?

Tatoeba

公共汽车多久发车一次?

Gōnggòngqìchē duōjiǔ fāchē yīcì?

How often does the bus run?

Tatoeba

这座城市有几个汽车站?

Zhè zuò chéngshì yǒu jǐge qìchēzhàn?

How many bus stations are there in this city?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced qì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 汽 (qì) mean in Chinese?
汽 (qì) primarily means "steam." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1195 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 汽 have?
汽 is written with 7 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 汽?
The radical associated with 汽 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 汽?
汽 is composed of: 氵 (structural), 气 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵气 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 汽?
Common words with 汽 include: 汽车 (qì chē, "car"); 汽油 (qì yóu, "gasoline"); 汽水 (qì shuǐ, "soda pop"); 蒸汽 (zhēng qì, "steam"); 汽车站 (qì chē zhàn, "bus stop"). There are over 57 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 汽 (qì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qì: 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 汽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 汽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 汽 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.