(shì): to serve, to attend upon

(shì) is a Chinese character meaning “to serve.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1852 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, person. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to serve
  2. to attend upon

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻寺 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shì zhěattendant
fú shito attend to
shì yìngwaiter
shì yìng shēngwaiter
shì nǚmaid
shì wèiImperial bodyguard
shì cóngto serve (an important personage)
shì fèngto wait upon
shì hòuto serve
shì láng(Ming and Qing dynasties) vice-minister of one of the Six Boards
shí cháng shìTen Permanent Functionaries at the end of Han, a byword for corruption
shì cóng guānaide-de-camp
shì wèi guānguard
shì lìto stand by in attendance
shì nòngto look after
20
Total compounds
70
As first character
30
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 20 compound words: 70 as the first character, 30 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.

láng
0.703120,906 co-occurrences
0.57723,226 co-occurrences
0.55416,554 co-occurrences
sàn
0.54230,540 co-occurrences
yòu
0.53838,064 co-occurrences
0.53111,862 co-occurrences
fèng
0.50217,490 co-occurrences
zuǒ
0.49527,156 co-occurrences
shì
0.48426,484 co-occurrences
0.47813,740 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位老虽然年过八旬,但身体依然硬朗。

zhè wèi lǎo shì suī rán nián guò bā xún , dàn shēn tī yī rán yìng lǎng .

Though over eighty years old, this old servant remains in robust health.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...28.HK)下月起延长产假至90天 男士产假增至7天

. . . 2 8 . H K ) xià yuè qǐ yán cháng chǎn jiǎ zhì 9 0 tiān nán shì shì chǎn jiǎ zēng zhì 7 tiān

... 28.HK) Maternity leave will be extended to 90 days from next month, and paternity leave for men will be increased to 7 days

Hk01.comFeb 2026

输入外劳前须本地实地招聘初级厨师及应 1500空缺仅9人受聘

shū rù wài láo qián xū běn dì shí dì zhāo pìn chū jí chú shī jí shì yīng 1 5 0 0 kōng quē jǐn 9 rén shòu pìn

Before importing foreign workers, local on-site recruitment of junior chefs and waiters 1500 vacancies only 9 people will be employed

Tatoeba

在你酒前最好先将白葡萄酒冷却一下。

Zài nǐ shì jiǔ qián zuì hǎo xiān jiāng bái pútaojiǔ lěngquè yīxià.

It's better to chill white wine before you serve it.

Tatoeba

没有人可以共二主。

Méiyǒurén kěyǐ gòng shì èr zhǔ.

No man can serve two masters.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 侍 (shì) mean in Chinese?
侍 (shì) primarily means "to serve." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1852 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 侍 and 持?
侍 (shì) and 持 (chí) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 亻 vs 扌 (same 寺 component).
How many strokes does 侍 have?
侍 is written with 8 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 侍?
The radical associated with 侍 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 侍?
侍 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 寺 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻寺 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 侍?
Common words with 侍 include: 侍者 (shì zhě, "attendant"); 服侍 (fú shi, "to attend to"); 侍应 (shì yìng, "waiter"); 侍应生 (shì yìng shēng, "waiter"); 侍女 (shì nǚ, "maid"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 侍 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 师 (teacher), 十 (ten), 时 (time, hour), 识 (to know, knowledge), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 侍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 侍 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.