嗜 (shì): addicted to, fond of, stem corresponding to -phil or -phile

嗜 (shì) is a Chinese character meaning “addicted to.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 耆 (phonetic). It ranks #2738 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 嗜 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. addicted to
  2. fond of
  3. stem corresponding to -phil or -phile

Etymology & Origin

嗜

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口耆 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
嗜好nounshì hàohobby
发作性嗜睡病fā zuò xìng shì shuì bìngnarcolepsy
嗜杀成性shì shā chéng xìngbloodthirsty
嗜酒如命shì jiǔ rú mìngto love wine as one's life (idiom)
嗜酸性球shì suān xìng qiúeosinophil granulocyte (type of white blood cell)
嗜碱性球shì jiǎn xìng qiúbasophil granulocyte (type of white blood cell)
嗜酸性粒细胞nounshì suān xìng lì xì bāoeosinophil (type of white blood cell)
嗜碱性粒细胞nounshì jiǎn xìng lì xì bāobasophil granulocytes (rarest type of white blood cell)
嗜睡症nounshì shuì zhènghypersomnia
嗜杀shì shāto delight in killing
嗜血adjectiveshì xuèbloodthirsty
嗜血杆菌nounshì xuè gǎn jūnhemophile bacteria
嗜欲nounshì yùlust
嗜酸乳杆菌nounshì suān rǔ gǎn jūnLactobacillus acidophilus
14
Total compounds
93
As first character
0
As last character
7
As middle character

嗜 appears in 14 compound words: 93 as the first character, 0 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 嗜 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

睡shuì
0.5791,196 co-occurrences
菌jūn
0.503782 co-occurrences
血xiě
0.4901,450 co-occurrences
酒jiǔ
0.4591,078 co-occurrences
赌dǔ
0.456104 co-occurrences
杆gān
0.456252 co-occurrences
好hǎo
0.4472,777 co-occurrences
粒lì
0.441330 co-occurrences
耽dān
0.43242 co-occurrences
酸suān
0.412503 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

嗜杀成性shì shā chéng xìngHSK 7+

bloodthirsty

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他嗜才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā shì cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He has a keen eye for talent, is highly articulate, and is an outstanding lawyer.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

抽血检查结果嗜酸性粒细胞数值显着升高,是寄生虫感染的标志性指标。

chōu xiě jiǎn chá jié guǒ shì suān xìng lì xì bāo shǔ zhí xiǎn zhe shēng gāo , shì jì shēng chóng gǎn rǎn de biāo zhì xìng zhǐ biāo .

The blood test results showed a significantly elevated eosinophil count, which is a hallmark of parasitic infection.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

小箭头背后的四大原因 嗜酸性粒细胞的增多绝非无缘无故,它背后往往隐藏着复杂的病因。

xiǎo jiàn tóu bèi hòu de sì dà yuán yīn shì suān xìng lì xì bāo de zēng duō jué fēi wú yuán wú gù , tā bèi hòu wǎng wǎng yǐn zàng zhe fù zá de bìng yīn .

The Four Main Causes Behind the Small Arrow: An increase in eosinophils never occurs without a reason; there is often a complex underlying cause.

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

周身全都会觉得疲乏无力,四肢酸软,困倦嗜睡。

zhōu shēn quán dōu huì jué dé pí fá wú lì , sì zhī suān ruǎn , kùn juàn shì shuì .

You’ll feel exhausted all over, with aching and weak limbs, and drowsiness and a strong urge to sleep.

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

菜花蛇嗜食鼠类,因而能够帮助控制鼠类数量,对保持生态平衡及农林业有益。

cài huā shé shì shí shǔ lèi , yīn ér néng gòu bāng zhù kòng zhì shǔ lèi shǔ liàng , duì bǎo chí shēng tài píng héng jí nóng lín yè yǒu yì .

The cauliflower snake feeds on rodents, and thus helps control their population, which is beneficial for maintaining ecological balance and supporting agriculture and forestry.

三立新聞網Mar 2026

哈米尼丧命!前朝王储嗨:嗜血暴君亡

hā mǐ ní sāng mìng ! qián cháo wáng chǔ 嗨 : shì xiě bào jūn wáng

Hamini died! Hi the former crown prince: The bloodthirsty tyrant is dead

Tatoeba

我父亲的嗜好是种玫瑰花。

Wǒ fùqīn de shìhào shì zhǒng méiguīhuā.

My father's hobby is growing roses.

Tatoeba

编程语言是他的嗜好。

Biānchéng yǔyán shì tā de shìhào.

Programming languages are his hobby.

Tatoeba

我的嗜好是看漫画书。

Wǒ de shìhào shì kàn mànhuà shū.

My hobby is reading comics.

Tatoeba

他们有相同的嗜好。

Tāmen yǒu xiāngtóng de shìhào.

They have the same habits.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 嗜 (shì) mean in Chinese?
嗜 (shì) primarily means "addicted to." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2738 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 嗜 have?
嗜 is written with 13 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 嗜?
The radical associated with 嗜 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 嗜?
嗜 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 耆 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口耆 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 嗜?
Common words with 嗜 include: 嗜好 (shì hào, "hobby"); 发作性嗜睡病 (fā zuò xìng shì shuì bìng, "narcolepsy"); 嗜杀成性 (shì shā chéng xìng, "bloodthirsty"); 嗜酒如命 (shì jiǔ rú mìng, "to love wine as one's life (idiom)"); 嗜酸性球 (shì suān xìng qiú, "eosinophil granulocyte (type of white blood cell)"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 嗜 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 是 (is, yes), 时 (time, hour), 事 (matter), 实 (real, practical), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 嗜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 嗜 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 嗜 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.