仕 (shì): to serve as an official, an official

仕 (shì) is a Chinese character meaning “to serve as an official.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (semantic) and 士 (phonetic). It ranks #3537 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 仕 person. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 你 (nǐ, you), 他 (tā, he).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to serve as an official
  2. an official

Etymology & Origin

仕

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻士 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
仕途nounshì túofficial career (formal)
仕女nounshì nǚcourt lady
学而优则仕proverbxué ér yōu zé shìone who is successful in one's studies, can become an official (idiom)
爱马仕ài mǎ shìHermès (brand)
卡仕达kǎ shì dá(loanword) custard
出仕verbchū shìto take up an official post
入仕rù shì(literary) to become an official
致仕verbzhì shìto retire from a government post (old)
仕宦verbshì huàn(literary) to serve as an official
9
Total compounds
33
As first character
56
As last character
11
As middle character

仕 appears in 9 compound words: 33 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 11 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

她仕长得很美,心地也很善良。

tā shì cháng dé hěn měi , xīn dì yě hěn shàn liáng .

She is very beautiful and has a kind heart.

Nownews今日新聞Apr 2026

薛仕凌才刚被起诉!王子也卷闪兵案遭拘提 前三...

Xuē shì líng cái gāng bèi qǐ sù ! wáng zǐ yě juǎn shǎn bīng àn zāo jū tí qián sān . . .

Xue Shiling has just been indicted! Wang Zi has also been detained in connection with the "Flash Soldier" case...

LtnMar 2026

自行到案却否认犯行 金钟影帝薛仕凌逃兵还诓医师背书 检求处2年半重刑

zì háng dào àn què fǒu rèn fàn háng jīn zhōng yǐng dì Xuē shì líng táo bīng hái 诓 yī shī bèi shū jiǎn qiú chǔ 2 nián bàn chóng xíng

Scholar Hsueh Shih-ling, a Golden Bell Award-winning actor, turned himself in but denied the charges; he evaded military service and even deceived a doctor into providing a false endorsement; prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence

It之家Mar 2026

...ANDISK Optimus:闪迪奥丁马仕系列 SSD 宣布 6 月在中国市场上市

. . . A N D I S K O p t i m u s : shǎn dí ào dīng mǎ shì xì liè S S D xuān bù 6 yuè zài zhōng guó shì chǎng shàng shì

...ANDISK Optimus: SanDisk's Optimus series SSDs are set to launch in the Chinese market in June

Hk01.comMar 2026

Hermès是财富的象征?名媛爱马仕收藏大公开 陈雪铃小房子太吸睛

H e r m e s shì cái fù de xiàng zhēng ? míng 媛 ài mǎ shì shōu zàng dà gōng kāi chén xuě líng xiǎo fáng zǐ tài xī jīng

Is Hermès a Symbol of Wealth? A Peek into Socialites’ Hermès Collections—Chen Xueling’s Mini House Steals the Show

Investing 香港Feb 2026

普徕仕:AI相关部署上维持审慎而具选择性的策略...

pǔ 徕 shì : A I xiāng guān bù shǔ shàng wéi chí shěn shèn ér jù xuǎn zé xìng de cè lüè . . .

Purais: Maintaining a cautious and selective approach to AI-related deployments...

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 亻 (person) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 仕 (shì) mean in Chinese?
仕 (shì) primarily means "to serve as an official." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3537 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 仕 have?
仕 is written with 5 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 仕?
The radical associated with 仕 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 仕?
仕 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 士 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻士 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 仕?
Common words with 仕 include: 仕途 (shì tú, "official career (formal)"); 仕女 (shì nǚ, "court lady"); 学而优则仕 (xué ér yōu zé shì, "one who is successful in one's studies, can become an official (idiom)"); 爱马仕 (ài mǎ shì, "Hermès (brand)"); 卡仕达 (kǎ shì dá, "(loanword) custard"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 仕 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 拾 (to pick up). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 仕 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 仕 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 仕 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.