(shāi): (bound form) a sieve, to sieve, to sift, to filter, to eliminate through selection

(shāi) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) a sieve.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2900 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, bamboo. Its radical form (bamboo) appears in many related characters such as (xiào, to laugh), (, (prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六[di4 liu4] "sixth")), (děng, to wait for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) a sieve
  2. to sieve
  3. to sift
  4. to filter
  5. to eliminate through selection

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticbamboo

Decomposition: ⿱⺮师 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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
verbshāi xuǎnto filter6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shāi zisieve
shāi gǔethmoid bone (cheek)
fēn zǐ shāimolecular sieve
shāi kāngto sift chaff
kuài sù shāi jiǎnrapid diagnostic test (RDT), abbr. to 快篩|快筛[kuai4 shai1]
guò shāito put through a sieve
shāi fǎthe sieve method (for primes)
shāi guǎn(botany) sieve tube
kuài shāirapid diagnostic test (RDT), abbr. for 快速篩檢|快速筛检[kuai4 su4 shai1 jian3]
gé shāigrizzly (mining)
shāi chúto screen or filter out
shāi cháto screen (for disease etc)
shāi jiǎnto screen (for disease etc)
14
Total compounds
64
As first character
29
As last character
7
As middle character

appears in 14 compound words: 64 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 7 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.

chá
0.58514,304 co-occurrences
suān
0.5353,702 co-occurrences
xuǎn
0.5096,942 co-occurrences
jiǎn
0.4932,259 co-occurrences
0.4913,618 co-occurrences
0.4346,318 co-occurrences
diǎn
0.4262,616 co-occurrences
yáng
0.4211,716 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.4043,168 co-occurrences
kuàng
0.39666 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

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

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

99 健康网Feb 2026

...检查项目有哪些?PSA检测只用于前列腺癌查吗

. . . jiǎn chá xiàng mù yǒu nǎ xiē ? P S A jiǎn cè zhī yòng yú qián liè xiàn ái shāi chá ma

... What are the inspection items? Is PSA testing only used for prostate cancer screening?

99 健康网Feb 2026

...边喂奶一边做dna的准确率无创产前高吗?查不能替代诊断吗

. . . biān wéi nǎi yī biān zuò d n a de zhǔn què lǜ wú chuàng chǎn qián gāo ma ? shāi chá bù néng tì dài zhěn duàn ma

... Is the accuracy of DNA while breastfeeding non-invasive high prenatal rate? Is screening not a substitute for diagnosis?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

性行为年龄下降 连假后性病检人数跟着涨

xìng háng wéi nián líng xià jiàng lián jiǎ hòu xìng bìng shāi jiǎn rén shǔ gēn zhe zhǎng

The age of sexual activity has declined, and the number of sexually transmitted disease screenings has increased after the holidays

99 健康网Feb 2026

孕期喝了酒对宝宝有没有影响?唐或无创能检测出酒精伤害吗

yùn qī hē le jiǔ duì bǎo bǎo yǒu méi yǒu yǐng xiǎng ? táng shāi huò wú chuàng néng jiǎn cè chū jiǔ jīng shāng hài ma

Does drinking alcohol during pregnancy affect the baby? Can Tang sieve or non-invasive detect alcohol damage?

EttodayFeb 2026

长假后“性病检增3成” 泌尿医曝观察:染淋病、披衣菌...

cháng jiǎ hòu xìng bìng shāi jiǎn zēng 3 chéng mì niào yī pù guàn chá : rǎn lín bìng , pī yī jūn . . .

After the long holiday, "STD screening increased by 30%" Urologist exposure observation: gonorrhea, chlamydia...

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shāi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 筛 (shāi) mean in Chinese?
筛 (shāi) primarily means "(bound form) a sieve." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2900 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 筛 and 狮?
筛 (shāi) and 狮 (shī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 竹 vs 犭 (same 师 component).
How many strokes does 筛 have?
筛 is written with 12 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 筛?
The radical associated with 筛 is 竹 (bamboo). This radical appears in many characters related to bamboo.
What are the components of 筛?
筛 is composed of: ⺮ (semantic), 师 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⺮师 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 筛?
Common words with 筛 include: 筛选 (shāi xuǎn, "to filter"); 筛子 (shāi zi, "sieve"); 筛骨 (shāi gǔ, "ethmoid bone (cheek)"); 分子筛 (fēn zǐ shāi, "molecular sieve"); 筛糠 (shāi kāng, "to sift chaff"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 筛 (shāi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shāi: 晒 (sunbathe, dry). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 筛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 筛 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.