砌 (qì): to build by laying bricks or stones, used in 砌末

砌 (qì) is a Chinese character meaning “to build by laying bricks or stones.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 石 (structural) and 切 (structural). It ranks #2846 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 砌 to cut 切 stone 石; 切 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 石 (stone) appears in many related characters such as 确 (què, certain, true), 碗 (wǎn, bowl), 碰 (pèng, to touch, to bump).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 石 stone9 strokesFrequency #2846石 structural切 structural

Definitions

  1. to build by laying bricks or stones
  2. used in 砌末

Etymology & Origin

砌

ideographicTo cut 切 stone 石; 切 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰石切 (layout: left-right)

Components:石structural切structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
堆砌duī qìlit. to pile up (bricks)
砌砖qì zhuānto lay bricks
铺砌pū qìto pave
砌合法qì hé fǎbond (in building)
砌长城qì cháng chéng(coll.) to play mahjong
砌体qì tǐbrickwork
砌合qì hébond (in building)
砌路qì lùpaving
砌词捏控qì cí niē kòngto make an accusation based on fabricated evidence (idiom)
砌砖工qì zhuān gōngbricklaying
砌块qì kuàibuilding block
砌层qì céngcourse (i.e. building layer)
砌末qiè movariant of 切末[qie4 mo5]
垒砌lěi qìto build a structure out of layered bricks or stones
14
Total compounds
79
As first character
21
As last character
0
As middle character

砌 appears in 14 compound words: 79 as the first character, 21 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 砌 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

砖zhuān
0.7079,342 co-occurrences
堆duī
0.6377,158 co-occurrences
石shí
0.53415,660 co-occurrences
墙qiáng
0.5152,688 co-occurrences
衬chèn
0.509486 co-occurrences
铺pù
0.5061,722 co-occurrences
垒lěi
0.492870 co-occurrences
筑zhù
0.4835,874 co-occurrences
浆jiāng
0.482522 co-occurrences
块kuài
0.4751,884 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

砌字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

qì zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The use of character-stacking is relatively infrequent in daily life.

Character Family

石 Radical Family — Characters sharing the stone radical

础chǔ矿kuàng码mǎ碰pèng破pò确què石shí硕shuò碗wǎn研yán

Related Characters

确què碗wǎn碰pèng石shí破pò础chǔ矿kuàng码mǎ研yán硕shuò

Homophones — Characters pronounced qì

七qī妻qī期qī齐qí其qí骑qí起qǐ气qì汽qì器qì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 砌 (qì) mean in Chinese?
砌 (qì) primarily means "to build by laying bricks or stones." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2846 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 砌 have?
砌 is written with 9 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 砌?
The radical associated with 砌 is 石 (stone). This radical appears in many characters related to stone.
What are the components of 砌?
砌 is composed of: 石 (structural), 切 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰石切 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 砌?
Common words with 砌 include: 堆砌 (duī qì, "lit. to pile up (bricks)"); 砌砖 (qì zhuān, "to lay bricks"); 铺砌 (pū qì, "to pave"); 砌合法 (qì hé fǎ, "bond (in building)"); 砌长城 (qì cháng chéng, "(coll.) to play mahjong"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 砌 (qì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qì: 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 砌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 砌 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.