(shì): market, city, municipality (administrative unit)

(shì) is a Chinese character meaning “market.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #254 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. market
  2. city
  3. municipality (administrative unit)

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
nounchéng shìcity3
nounshì chǎngmarketplace4
nounchāo shìsupermarket (abbr. for 超級市場|超级市场[chao1 ji2 shi4 chang3])1
nounshì míncity resident5
nounshì qūurban district4
noundū shìcity6
verbshàng shìto hit the market (of a new product)6
noungǔ shìstock market6
nounyè shìnight market5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shì zhǎngmayor
shì lǐli (Chinese unit of length equal to 500 meters)
hēi shìblack market
shì zhèngmunicipal administration
běn shìthis city
jí shìmarket
quán shìwhole city
shì miànthe marketplace (i.e. the world of business and commerce)
shì nèiinside the city
shì jiāoouter city
shì zhímarket capitalization
shì jǐngmarketplace
shì jiàmarket value
shì jífair
shì lìmunicipal
100
Total compounds
34
As first character
66
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 34 as the first character, 66 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.

chéng
0.6981,541,538 co-occurrences
zhèn
0.682854,880 co-occurrences
rǎng
0.594202,908 co-occurrences
jiù
0.561195,162 co-occurrences
běi
0.500615,688 co-occurrences
zhōu
0.498413,532 co-occurrences
0.490488,112 co-occurrences
huò
0.480396,618 co-occurrences
chǎng
0.474255,448 co-occurrences
yáng
0.460120,378 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (19)

bǎngfùshìcáoHSK 7+

to carry out a public execution in a city center (as a warning to others)

phrase
bù lā sà shìHSK 7+

Brazzaville, capital of Congo (Tw)

phrase
gǔpiào shìchǎngHSK 6+

stock market; sharemarket

noun
Hú Zhìmíng ShìHSK 5+

Ho Chi Minh City (a city in Vietnam)

huòbì shìchǎngHSK 5+

money market

noun
jiā mù sī shìHSK 7+

Jiamusi, prefecture-level city in Heilongjiang Province 黑龍江省|黑龙江省[Hei1 long2 jiang1 Sheng3]

phrase
jīnróng shìchǎngHSK 6+

financial market

noun
Kuíběikè ShìHSK 7+

Quebec, Quebec City (the capital city of the province of Quebec, Canada)

méntíngruòshìHSK 7+

with many visitors or customers

phrase
qīhángbàshìHSK 7+

to oppress others in the same trade and monopolize the market

phrase
shì chǎng zhǔn rùHSK 4+

access to markets

phrase
shì jǐng xiǎo mínHSK 6+

ordinary people; the hoi polloi; commoner

phrase

Showing 12 of 19 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

shì zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "市" has different usages in different contexts.

東方日報Feb 2026

...方日报A1:新春8日 300万港人外游 道更愁

. . . fāng rì bào A 1 : xīn chūn 8 rì 3 0 0 wàn gǎng rén wài yóu shì dào gēng chóu

... Fang Daily A1: On the 8th of the Chinese New Year, 3 million Hong Kong people traveled abroad, and the market was even more troubled

WorldjournalFeb 2026

汪小菲过年带子逛饶河夜 脱口“台湾”赶紧加“中国”

wāng xiǎo 菲 guò nián dài zǐ guàng ráo hé yè shì tuō kǒu tái wān gǎn jǐn jiā zhōng guó

Wang Xiaofei took her children to visit Raohe Night Market during the New Year and blurted out "Taiwan" and quickly added "China"

東方日報Feb 2026

龙七公:“万亿大”挑大梁支撑基本面

lóng qī gōng : wàn yì dà shì tiāo dà liáng zhī chēng jī běn miàn

Long Qigong: "Trillion big city" takes the lead to support fundamentals

WorldjournalFeb 2026

暴风雪来袭 纽约周一停课停学 19年来首见

bào fēng xuě lái xí niǔ yuē shì zhōu yī tíng kè tíng xué 1 9 nián lái shǒu jiàn

The blizzard hit New York City on Monday and closed classes for the first time in 19 years

NewtalkFeb 2026

中国网军4千帐户攻击高早苗 矢板明夫:台日两国正面对相同挑战

zhōng guó wǎng jūn 4 qiān zhàng hù gōng jī gāo shì zǎo miáo shǐ bǎn míng fū : tái rì liǎng guó zhèng miàn duì xiāng tóng tiāo zhàn

4,000 accounts of China's cyber army attacked Sanae Takaichi Akio Yaita: Taiwan and Japan are facing the same challenges

Tatoeba

你的学校在这个城吗?

Nǐ de xuéxiào zài zhège chéngshì ma?

Is your school in this town?

Tatoeba

纽约的人口有多少?

Niǔyuē Shì de rénkǒu yǒu duōshao?

How large is the population of New York City?

Tatoeba

你知道从火车站到政府有多远?

Nǐ zhīdào cóng huǒchēzhàn dào shìzhèngfǔ yǒu duōyuǎn?

Do you know how far it is from the station to city hall?

Tatoeba

你在三田住了多久?

Nǐ zài sāntián shì zhù le duōjiǔ?

How long did you live in Sanda?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 市 (shì) mean in Chinese?
市 (shì) primarily means "market." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #254 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 市 have?
市 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 市?
The radical associated with 市 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.
What are the components of 市?
市 is composed of: 亠 (structural), 巾 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱亠巾 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 市?
Common words with 市 include: 城市 (chéng shì, "city"); 市场 (shì chǎng, "marketplace"); 市长 (shì zhǎng, "mayor"); 超市 (chāo shì, "supermarket (abbr. for 超級市場|超级市场[chao1 ji2 shi4 chang3])"); 市民 (shì mín, "city resident"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 市 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 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 市 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 市 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.