氏 (shì): (bound form) family name, surname (as in 王氏 "the Wang clan"), (bound form) maiden name, née (as in 李王氏 "Mrs. Li, née Wang"), (bound form) honorific suffix added to the surname or full name of a notable person, esp. historical or scholarly figures
氏 (shì) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) family name.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 氏 (clan). It ranks #1491 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 氏 a person bowing down. Its radical form 氏 (clan) appears in many related characters such as 民 (mín, (bound form) the people), 氓 (máng, used in 流氓 (hoodlum)).
Definitions
- (bound form) family name
- surname (as in 王氏 "the Wang clan")
- (bound form) maiden name
- née (as in 李王氏 "Mrs. Li, née Wang")
- (bound form) honorific suffix added to the surname or full name of a notable person, esp. historical or scholarly figures
Etymology & Origin
ideographicA person bowing down
Stroke Order
Practice writing 氏 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 氏
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 华氏adjective | huá shì | Fahrenheit |
| 姓氏noun | xìng shì | family name |
| 无名氏noun | wú míng shì | anonymous person |
| 摄氏adjective | shè shì | Celsius |
| 氏族noun | shì zú | clan |
| 沙门氏菌noun | shā mén shì jūn | Salmonella |
| 里氏proper-noun | lǐ shì | (seismology) Richter (scale) |
| 欧氏 | ōu shì | Euclid |
| 卢氏proper-noun | lú shì | see 盧氏縣|卢氏县 |
| 罗氏 | luó shì | Roche, a Swiss multinational healthcare company that focuses on pharmaceuticals and diagnostics |
| 普氏 | pǔ shì | Nikolai Mikhailovich Przevalski 普爾熱瓦爾斯基|普尔热瓦尔斯基 (1839-1888), Russian explorer who made four expeditions to Central As... |
| 范氏起电机 | fàn shì qǐ diàn jī | Van de Graaff generator |
| 大月氏 | dà yuè zhī | the Greater Yuezhi, a branch of the Yuezhi 月氏 people of central Asia during the Han dynasty |
| 罗氏几何 | luó shì jǐ hé | hyperbolic geometry |
| 亚氏保加 | yà shì bǎo jiā | see 阿斯佩爾格爾|阿斯佩尔格尔 |
氏 appears in 100 compound words: 1 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 63 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 氏 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (3)
Showing 2 of 3 idioms containing 氏.
Example Sentences
这个氏字在古汉语中有不同的含义。
zhè gě shì zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .
The character "氏" had different meanings in Classical Chinese.
北洋军后代对决蒋氏后代? 遭酸舔绿为选北市长 贾永婕发声了
běi yáng jūn hòu dài duì jué 蒋 shì hòu dài ? zāo suān tiǎn lǜ wéi xuǎn běi shì cháng gǔ yǒng 婕 fā shēng le
The descendants of the Beiyang Army vs. the descendants of the Jiang family? Jia Yongjie spoke out for the election of the mayor of Beijing
大陆猪企温氏股份归母净利润同比下降43%
dà lù zhū qǐ wēn shì gǔ fèn guī mǔ jìng lì rùn tóng bǐ xià jiàng 4 3
The net profit attributable to the parent company of mainland pig company Wen's shares decreased by 43% year-on-year
Stifel上调劳氏公司目标价至270美元,看好其韧性表现
S t i f e l shàng diào láo shì gōng sī mù biāo jià zhì 2 7 0 měi yuán , kàn hǎo qí rèn xìng biǎo xiàn
Stifel raised Lloyd's price target to $270, optimistic about its resilience performance
江川氏 巨人监督候补に浮上?
jiāng chuān shì jù rén jiān dū hòu bǔ fú shàng ?
Mr. Egawa emerged as a candidate for Giants supervision?
将烤箱预热至华氏 300 度。
Jiāng kǎoxiāng yùrè zhì Huáshì 300 dù.
Preheat the oven to 300° Fahrenheit.
摄氏零度时水会结冰，对吧？
Shèshì língdù shí shuǐ huì jiébīng, duì ba?
Water will freeze at zero Celsius, right?
今天的气温升高到摄氏三十度。
Jīntiān de qìwēn shēnggāo dào Shèshì sānshí dù.
Today, the temperature rose as high as 30 degrees Celsius.
水在摄氏100度沸腾。
Shuǐ zài Shèshì 100 dù fèiténg.
Water boils at 100 degrees.
你的姓氏怎么写？
Nǐ de xìngshì zěnme xiě?
How is your surname written?
Character Family
氏 Radical Family — Characters sharing the clan radical
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 氏 (shì) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 氏 and 空?
How many strokes does 氏 have?
What is the radical of 氏?
What are common words containing 氏?
What characters sound the same as 氏 (shì)?
Is 氏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 氏 with real-time feedback
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