(sài): competition

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

Etymologically derived, money. Its radical form (roof) appears in many related characters such as (, guest, customer), (jiā, home, family), (, it).

Native pronunciation
HSK 3Radical: roof14 strokesFrequency #1063 phonetic

Definitions

  1. competition

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmoney

Components:phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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
verb/nounbǐ sàicompetition (sports etc)3
verb/nounjué sàifinals (of a competition)5
noundà sàigrand contest4
verbcān sàito compete4
verbjìng sàito compete6
nounsài chǎngracetrack5
nounsài shìcompetition (e.g. sporting)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
sài jìseason (sports)
sài chēauto race
sài mǎhorse race
cān sài zhěcompetitor
jǐn biāo sàichampionship contest
lián sài(sports) league
qiú sài(ball sports) game
mǎ sàiMarseille, city in south France
sài pǎorace (running)
sài chéngcompetition schedule
sài duànstage of a competition
sài dàorace course
bàn jué sàisemifinals
gōng kāi sài(sports) open championship
guàn jūn sàichampionship
100
Total compounds
30
As first character
56
As last character
14
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 30 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 14 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.

jué
0.742558,270 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.658110,250 co-occurrences
0.628589,462 co-occurrences
0.585291,852 co-occurrences
lián
0.579241,866 co-occurrences
0.54585,758 co-occurrences
tóng
0.53648,312 co-occurrences
bàn
0.528145,128 co-occurrences
jìng
0.52848,269 co-occurrences
bēi
0.50037,422 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

bǎi mǐ sài pǎoHSK 3+

100-meter dash

phrase
Fán'ěrsài GōngHSK 6+

Palace of Versailles

jíbǔsàirénHSK 7+

Romani people; Gypsy

noun
jiē lì sài pǎoHSK 3+

relay race

phrase
SàipǔlèsīHSK 7+

Cyprus

yuè yě sài pǎoHSK 6+

cross-country running

phrase

Showing 6 of 8 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这场比很激烈,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: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: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

他被取消了参资格。

Tā bèi qǔxiāo le cānsài zīgé.

He was disqualified from the competition.

Character Family

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), undefined (structural). 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 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.