祈 (qí): to implore, to pray, to request

祈 (qí) is a Chinese character meaning “to implore.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 礻 (semantic) and 斤 (phonetic). It ranks #2363 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 祈 spirit. Its radical form 礻 (spirit) appears in many related characters such as 票 (piào, ticket), 视 (shì, (literary, or bound form) to look at), 示 (shì, to show).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to implore
  2. to pray
  3. to request

Etymology & Origin

祈

pictophoneticspirit

Decomposition: ⿰礻斤 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
祈祷verbqí dǎoto pray
祈求verbqí qiúto pray for
祈福verbqí fúto pray for blessings
祈愿verbqí yuànto pray
祈望verbqí wàngto hope
祈使句nounqí shǐ jùimperative sentence
祈仙台qí xiān táimemorial altar
闭会祈祷bì huì qí dǎobenediction
启应祈祷qǐ yìng qí dǎoIntroitus (section of Catholic mass)
祈福禳灾qí fú ráng zāito pray for luck and sacrifice to avoid disasters (i.e. traditional superstitions)
祈盼qí pànto earnestly hope for
11
Total compounds
82
As first character
0
As last character
18
As middle character

祈 appears in 11 compound words: 82 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 18 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 祈 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

祷dǎo
0.8156,813 co-occurrences
求qiú
0.5156,808 co-occurrences
福fú
0.4954,783 co-occurrences
泰tài
0.45214 co-occurrences
典diǎn
0.43016 co-occurrences
愿yuàn
0.426674 co-occurrences
祭jì
0.415920 co-occurrences
雨yǔ
0.4131,152 co-occurrences
虔qián
0.409156 co-occurrences
佑yòu
0.399316 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

祈字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

qí zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "祈" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

EttodayFeb 2026

基隆佛教会新春团拜 副市长邱佩琳祈祝国泰民安

jī lóng fó jiào huì xīn chūn tuán bài fù shì cháng 邱 pèi 琳 qí zhù guó tài mín ān

Keelung Buddhist Church New Year group worship Vice Mayor Qiu Peilin prays for the safety of the country and the people

LtnFeb 2026

...宫庙埕“全是钱” 价值800万百龟供乞龟祈福

. . . gōng miào 埕 quán shì qián jià zhí 8 0 0 wàn bǎi guī gōng qǐ guī qí fú

... The palace and temple are "all money" worth 8 million turtles for begging turtles to pray for blessings

LtnFeb 2026

...友好!中坜仁海宫信众 跨海为高市早苗点灯祈福

. . . yǒu hǎo ! zhōng 坜 rén hǎi gōng xìn zhòng kuà hǎi wéi gāo shì zǎo miáo diǎn dēng qí fú

... Friendly! Believers in Zhongli Renhai Palace crossed the sea to light lamps and pray for Sanae in Gaoshi

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

阿罗街第18届助庆天公诞祈福大典 爆竹震天烟花绽放 近万人齐聚祈福

ā luó jiē dì 1 8 jiè zhù qìng tiān gōng dàn qí fú dà diǎn bào zhú zhèn tiān yān huā zhàn fàng jìn wàn rén qí jù qí fú

The 18th Celebration of Tiangong's Birthday Blessing Ceremony on Alor Street Firecrackers and fireworks bloomed Nearly 10,000 people gathered to pray for blessings

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

中钢举办新春开泰祈福典礼 董事长:“稳定获利”是今年最重要...

zhōng gāng jǔ bàn xīn chūn kāi tài qí fú diǎn lǐ dǒng shì cháng : wěn dìng huò lì shì jīn nián zuì chóng yāo . . .

China Steel held a New Year blessing ceremony Chairman: "Stable profits" is the most important thing this year...

Tatoeba

他每天祈祷好几次。

Tā měitiān qídǎo hǎojǐ cì.

He prays several times a day.

Tatoeba

我们都跪了下来祈祷。

Wǒmen dōu guì le xiàlai qídǎo.

We all knelt down to pray.

Tatoeba

我们全体为日本祈祷。

Wǒmen quántǐ wèi Rìběn qídǎo.

We're all praying for Japan.

Tatoeba

让我们祈盼她会来。

Ràng wǒmen qí pàn tā huì lái.

Let's hope she comes.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 礻 (spirit) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced qí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 祈 (qí) mean in Chinese?
祈 (qí) primarily means "to implore." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2363 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 祈 and 近?
祈 (qí) and 近 (jìn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 礻 vs 辶 (same 斤 component).
How many strokes does 祈 have?
祈 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 祈?
The radical associated with 祈 is 礻 (spirit). This radical appears in many characters related to spirit.
What are the components of 祈?
祈 is composed of: 礻 (semantic), 斤 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰礻斤 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 祈?
Common words with 祈 include: 祈祷 (qí dǎo, "to pray"); 祈求 (qí qiú, "to pray for"); 祈福 (qí fú, "to pray for blessings"); 祈愿 (qí yuàn, "to pray"); 祈望 (qí wàng, "to hope"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 祈 (qí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qí: 起 (to rise), 其 (his), 气 (gas), 期 (period, expect), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 祈 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 祈 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 祈 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.