赛 (sài): competition

赛 (sài) is a Chinese character meaning “competition.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 宀 (phonetic) and 贝 (semantic). It ranks #1063 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 赛 money. Its radical form 宀 (roof) appears in many related characters such as 客 (kè, guest, customer), 家 (jiā, home, family), 它 (tā, it).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. competition

Etymology & Origin

赛

pictophoneticmoney

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 赛

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
比赛verb/nounbǐ sàicompetition (sports etc)3
决赛verb/nounjué sàifinals (of a competition)5
大赛noundà sàigrand contest4
参赛verbcān sàito compete4
竞赛verbjìng sàito compete6
赛场nounsài chǎngracetrack5
赛事nounsài shìcompetition (e.g. sporting)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
赛季nounsài jìseason (sports)
赛车nounsài chēauto race
赛马verbsài mǎhorse racing
参赛者nouncān sài zhěcompetitor
锦标赛nounjǐn biāo sàichampionship contest
联赛nounlián sài(sports) league
球赛nounqiú sài(ball sports) game
马赛proper-nounmǎ sàiMarseille, city in south France
赛跑nounsài pǎorace (running)
赛程nounsài chéngcompetition schedule
赛段sài duànstage of a competition
赛道nounsài dàorace course
半决赛nounbàn jué sàisemifinals
公开赛noungōng kāi sài(sports) open championship
冠军赛nounguàn jūn sàichampionship
100
Total compounds
22
As first character
66
As last character
12
As middle character

赛 appears in 100 compound words: 22 as the first character, 66 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 赛 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

决jué
0.732186,090 co-occurrences
锦jǐn
0.59036,811 co-occurrences
季jì
0.57797,284 co-occurrences
联lián
0.57180,622 co-occurrences
比bǐ
0.539196,669 co-occurrences
预yù
0.53728,586 co-occurrences
铜tóng
0.53216,102 co-occurrences
竞jìng
0.52616,086 co-occurrences
半bàn
0.52048,376 co-occurrences
标biāo
0.48531,096 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

百米赛跑bǎi mǐ sài pǎoHSK 3+

100-meter dash

phrase
凡尔赛宫Fán'ěrsài GōngHSK 6+

Palace of Versailles

吉卜赛人JíbǔsàirénHSK 7+

Romani people; Gypsy

noun
接力赛跑jiē lì sài pǎoHSK 3+

relay race

phrase
赛普勒斯SàipǔlèsīHSK 7+

Cyprus

越野赛跑yuè yě sài pǎoHSK 6+

cross-country running

phrase

Showing 6 of 8 idioms containing 赛.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这场比赛很激烈,双方实力相当,难分胜负。

Zhè chǎng bǐsài hěn jīliè, shuāngfāng shílì xiāngdāng, nán fēn shèngfù.

This match is very intense; both sides are evenly matched, making it hard to determine the winner.

百度新闻Feb 2026

在米兰,冰雪赛场藏着中国式浪漫

zài mǐ lán , bīng xuě sài chǎng zàng zhe zhōng guó shì làng màn

In Milan, the ice and snow arena hides Chinese romance

百度新闻Feb 2026

自由式滑雪男子U型场地技巧预赛结束 4名中国选手均..

zì yóu shì huá xuě nán zǐ U xíng chǎng dì jì qiǎo yù sài jié shù 4 míng zhōng guó xuǎn shǒu jūn . .

Freestyle skiing men's halfpipe skills preliminaries ended with 4 Chinese athletes:

百度新闻Feb 2026

机器人春晚PK赛:热闹之余,多想三个问题 | 视频

jī qì rén chūn wǎn sài rè nào zhī yú , duō xiǎng sān gě wèn tí shì pín

Robot Spring Festival PK Match: Three Questions to Ask While You're Watching | VIDEO

百度新闻Feb 2026

冬奥会|冰壶男子循环赛:中国队不敌加拿大队

dōng ào huì bīng hú nán zǐ xún huán sài zhōng guó duì bù dí jiā ná dà duì

Winter Olympics | Men's Curling Round Robin: China Falls to Canada

百度新闻Feb 2026

米兰冬奥会DAY12观赛指南:刘少昂林孝埈携手冲金

mǐ lán dōng ào huì guàn sài zhǐ nán liú shǎo áng lín xiào 埈 xié shǒu chōng jīn

Milan Winter Olympics Day 12 Viewing Guide: Liu Shaoyang and Lim Hyo-joong Team Up for Gold

Tatoeba

说好要瞪眼比赛的呀!

Shuōhǎo yào dèngyǎn bǐsài de ya!

I said we're doing a staring contest!

Tatoeba

地面仍然很湿滑,看来比赛要被取消了。

Dìmiàn réngrán hěn shī huá, kànlai bǐsài yào bèi qǔxiāo le.

The ground is still wet. As likely as not, the game will be canceled.

Tatoeba

棒球比赛因为天雨取消了。

Bàngqiú bǐsài yīnwèi tiān yǔ qǔxiāo le.

The baseball game was called off due to rain.

Tatoeba

他被取消了参赛资格。

Tā bèi qǔxiāo le cānsài zīgé.

He was disqualified from the competition.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 贝 (money) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced sài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 赛 (sài) mean in Chinese?
赛 (sài) primarily means "competition." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1063 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 赛 have?
赛 is written with 14 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 赛?
The radical associated with 赛 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 赛?
赛 is composed of: 宀 (phonetic), 贝 (semantic). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 赛?
Common words with 赛 include: 比赛 (bǐ sài, "competition (sports etc)"); 决赛 (jué sài, "finals (of a competition)"); 大赛 (dà sài, "grand contest"); 参赛 (cān sài, "to compete"); 竞赛 (jìng sài, "to compete"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 赛 (sài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sài: 塞 (to plug). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 赛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 赛 and the traditional form is 賽.

Practice writing 赛 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.