(shí): ten, 10

(shí) is a Chinese character meaning “ten.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #112 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ten
  2. 10

Stroke Order

1
2

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
adverbshí fēnvery4
adjectiveshí zúample6
shí zì lù kǒucrossroads4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
èr shítwenty
shí èrtwelve
sān shíthirty
shí zì jiàcross
wǔ shífifty
shí wǔfifteen
shí wànhundred thousand
sì shíforty
shí jǐmore than ten
shí zìcross road
shí bāeighteen
shí liùsixteen
shí sìfourteen
shí yīeleven
liù shísixty
100
Total compounds
60
As first character
16
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 60 as the first character, 16 as the last, and 24 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.

èr
0.7382,502,058 co-occurrences
liù
0.650887,747 co-occurrences
0.6451,033,796 co-occurrences
0.645735,427 co-occurrences
0.641759,518 co-occurrences
0.6411,208,911 co-occurrences
sān
0.6321,544,596 co-occurrences
jiǔ
0.625634,550 co-occurrences
juǎn
0.612493,242 co-occurrences
bǎi
0.567399,360 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (45)

bǎi'erbāshíHSK 1+

a hundred or slightly fewer

dànián sānshíHSK 1+

Chinese New Year's Eve

noun
Èrshísì ShǐHSK 3+

Twenty-Four Histories

Èrshísì XiàoHSK 7+

The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars

èr shí wǔ shǐHSK 3+

twenty four dynastic histories (or 25 or 26 in modern editions)

phrase
èr shí yī tiáoHSK 1+

the Japanese Twenty-One Demands of 1915

phrase
HóngshízìhuìHSK 2+

the Red Cross

liù shí sì guàHSK 7+

the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes (I Ching or Yi Jing) 易經|易经

phrase
Míng ShísānlíngHSK 7+

Alternative name for 十三陵 (Shísānlíng, “Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty”).

mù xià shí hángHSK 3+

see 一目十行[yi1 mu4 shi2 hang2]

phrase
Nánshízì ZuòHSK 4+

Crux

qīlǎobāshíHSK 1+

very old; in one's old age

phrase

Showing 12 of 45 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

年树木,百年树人,教育是一项长期的事业。

Shí nián shùmù, bǎi nián shù rén, jiàoyù shì yī xiàng chángqī de shìyè.

It takes ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to cultivate people; education is a long-term undertaking.

99 健康网Feb 2026

ysl水蜜桃满八岁可以用的吗?使用前这些要点需知晓

y s l shuǐ mì táo mǎn shí bā suì kě yǐ yòng de ma ? shǐ yòng qián zhè xiē yāo diǎn xū zhī xiǎo

Can YSL peaches be used at the age of 18? These points need to be known before use

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

第三三届国际《古兰经》展览会开幕

dì sān shí sān jiè guó jì gǔ lán jīng zhǎn lǎn huì kāi mù

The 33rd International Quran Exhibition opened

百度新闻Feb 2026

2026祛斑产品什么好?大祛斑产品排名深扒:祛斑..

2 0 2 6 祛 bān chǎn pǐn shén má hǎo ? shí dà 祛 bān chǎn pǐn pái míng shēn bā : 祛 bān . .

What are the best freckle removal products in 2026? Top 10 freckle removal product rankings: freckle removal:

百度新闻Feb 2026

温暖守护特别策划:良田与奶奶的“年之约”

wēn nuǎn shǒu hù tè bié cè huá liáng tián yú nǎi nǎi de shí nián zhī yāo

Warm Guardian Special Program: Yoshida's "Ten-Year Pact" with Grandma

百度新闻Feb 2026

万全右卫城二时辰:赚时辰印,当“荣誉居民”

mò quán yòu wèi chéng shí èr shí chén zhuàn shí chén yìn , dāng róng yù jū mín

The Twelve Hours of Manjuemae Castle: Earn your hourly seal and become an honorary resident.

Tatoeba

上个月是一月吗?

Shànggèyuè shì Shíyīyuè ma?

Was last month November?

Tatoeba

什么?现在才一点?还有一个小时才吃饭呢。

Shénme? xiànzài cái shíyī diǎn? háiyǒu yī gè xiǎoshí cái chīfàn ne.

What? It's only eleven? We still have an hour to go before lunch.

Tatoeba

你能用中文数到吗?

Nǐ néng yòng Zhōngwén shǔ dào shí ma?

Can you count to ten in Chinese?

Tatoeba

明年四月你英文是不是会已经学了年了?

Míngnián Sìyuè nǐ Yīngwén shìbùshì huì yǐjīng xué le shí nián le?

By next April will you have studied English for ten years?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the ten radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced shí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 十 (shí) mean in Chinese?
十 (shí) primarily means "ten." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #112 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 十 have?
十 is written with 2 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 十?
The radical associated with 十 is 十 (ten). This radical appears in many characters related to ten.
What are the components of 十?
十 is composed of: 一 (structural), 丨 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻一丨 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 十?
Common words with 十 include: 十分 (shí fēn, "very"); 二十 (èr shí, "twenty"); 十二 (shí èr, "twelve"); 三十 (sān shí, "thirty"); 十足 (shí zú, "ample"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 十 (shí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shí: 师 (teacher), 时 (time, hour), 识 (to know, knowledge), 实 (real, practical), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 十 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 十 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.