(shí): stone

(shí) is a Chinese character meaning “stone.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #414 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a rock 口 at the base of a cliff 厂. Its radical form (stone) appears in many related characters such as (què, certain, true), (wǎn, bowl), (pèng, to touch, to bump).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. stone

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA rock 口 at the base of a cliff 厂

Decomposition: ⿸厂口 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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
nounshí toustone5
nounshí yóuoil6
nounhuà shífossil6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bǎo shíprecious stone
shí gāogypsum CaSO4·2(H2O)
shí miánasbestos
shí kuàistone
shí bǎnslab
kuàng shíore
jiāo shíreef
jī shífoundation stone
shí guānsarcophagus
shí bēistele
jù shíhuge rock
shí liupomegranate
shí huàto petrify
huǒ shíflint (stone)
cí shímagnet
100
Total compounds
44
As first character
56
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 44 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 0 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.

0.67161,974 co-occurrences
yǔn
0.60639,318 co-occurrences
yán
0.586108,462 co-occurrences
yóu
0.572120,947 co-occurrences
zuān
0.54415,783 co-occurrences
0.53415,660 co-occurrences
0.53181,012 co-occurrences
gāo
0.51610,644 co-occurrences
kēng
0.50943,650 co-occurrences
bēi
0.49839,768 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (20)

dūn huáng shí kūHSK 7+

Dunhuang caves in Gansu; refers to Mogao caves 莫高石窟[Mo4 gao1 shi2 ku1]

phrase
hǎikūshílànHSK 6+

end of the world

phrase
jīnshíliángyánHSK 5+

precious advice or instruction

phrase
lóng mén shí kūHSK 7+

Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang 洛陽|洛阳[Luo4 yang2], Henan

phrase
luàn shí zá sǐHSK 7+

to stone to death

phrase
luòjǐngxiàshíHSK 6+

to kick someone when they are down

phrase
shíchéndàhǎiHSK 5+

a stone sinks in the ocean; to receive no response; to never hear back from someone or about something

phrase
shí tou huǒ guōHSK 5+

claypot (used in cooking)

phrase
穿shuǐdīshíchuānHSK 6+

little strokes fell great oaks

proverb
tiěshíxīnchángHSK 6+

stone-hearted; unmoved

phrase
tóujǐngxiàshíHSK 6+

synonym of 落井下石 (luòjǐngxiàshí, “to kick someone when they are down”)

phrase
yǐluǎnjíshíHSK 7+

to overestimate one's capabilities or to attack a stronger opponent as the weaker side which is sure to end in failure

phrase

Showing 12 of 20 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

头可以用来建造房屋,是一种天然的建筑材料。

Shítou kěyǐ yòng lái jiànzào fángwū, shì yì zhǒng tiānrán de jiànzhù cáiliào.

Stones can be used to build houses; they are a natural building material.

三立新聞網Feb 2026

以为黄金!贼闯宅偷宝盒 他:是我肾结

yǐ wéi huáng jīn ! zéi chuǎng zhái tōu bǎo hé tā : shì wǒ shèn jié shí

Think it's gold! Thieves break into the house and steal treasure boxes He: It's my kidney stones

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

钢厂赴美设点开出第一枪 API油钢管大厂天声将斥资13亿元前进德州

gāng hǎn fù měi shè diǎn kāi chū dì yī qiāng A P I shí yóu gāng guǎn dà hǎn tiān shēng jiāng chì zī 1 3 yì yuán qián jìn dé zhōu

Steel mills went to the United States to set up a point and fired the first shot API petroleum steel pipe manufacturer Tiansheng will spend 1.3 billion yuan to advance to Texas

百度新闻Feb 2026

(新春走基层)从塔里木河到钱塘江:一颗“榴籽”的..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng cóng tǎ lǐ mù hé dào qián táng jiāng yī kē shí 榴 籽 de . .

(Chinese New Year) From Tarim River to Qiantang River: A "Pomegranate Seed" of...

百度新闻Feb 2026

超标近2000倍 日本川县一处地下水检出高浓度有..

chāo biāo jìn bèi rì běn shí chuān xiàn yī chǔ dì xià shuǐ jiǎn chū gāo nóng dù yǒu . .

Nearly 2,000 times the limit, a groundwater in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, was found to have high concentrations of...

百度新闻Feb 2026

斯洛伐克政府宣布进入国家油紧急状态

sī 洛 fá kè zhèng fǔ xuān bù jìn rù guó jiā shí yóu jǐn jí zhuàng tài

The Slovak government has declared a national oil emergency.

Tatoeba

假的钻和真的钻有什么分别?

Jiǎ de zuànshí hé zhēn de zuànshí yǒu shénme fēnbié?

What is the difference between imitation and real diamonds?

Tatoeba

谁能融化你的铁心肠?

Shéi néng rónghuà nǐ de tiěshíxīncháng?

Who could melt that stone heart of yours?

Tatoeba

谁朝我的狗扔的子?

Shéi cháo wǒ de gǒu rēng de shí zǐ?

Who threw a stone at my dog?

Tatoeba

一块岩从上面落下。

Yī kuài yánshí cóng shàngmiàn luòxià.

A rock fell from above.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 石 (shí) mean in Chinese?
石 (shí) primarily means "stone." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #414 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 石 have?
石 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 石?
The radical associated with 石 is 石 (stone). This radical appears in many characters related to stone.
What are the components of 石?
石 is composed of: 厂 (structural), 口 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸厂口 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 石?
Common words with 石 include: 石头 (shí tou, "stone"); 石油 (shí yóu, "oil"); 宝石 (bǎo shí, "precious stone"); 石膏 (shí gāo, "gypsum CaSO4·2(H2O)"); 石棉 (shí mián, "asbestos"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 石 (shí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shí: 师 (teacher), 十 (ten), 时 (time, hour), 识 (to know, knowledge), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 石 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 石 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.