(shì): (of flowing water or time) to pass by, to pass away, to die

(shì) is a Chinese character meaning “(of flowing water or time) to pass by.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2066 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, walk. Its radical form (walk) appears in many related characters such as (biān, side), (guò, to pass, past), (hái, still, return).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (of flowing water or time) to pass by
  2. to pass away
  3. to die

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwalk

Decomposition: ⿺辶折 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
liú shì(of time) to pass
shì qùto elapse
xiāo shìto fade away
fēi shì(of time) to pass quickly
shì shìto pass away
zhuǎn shùn jí shì(idiom) fleeting
yīng nián zǎo shìto die an untimely death (idiom)
shāo zòng jí shìtransient
zǎo shìearly demise
bìng shìto die of illness
zhuǎn yǎn jí shìto pass in an instant
suì yuè liú shìas time goes by (idiom)
qù shìto pass away
shì zhěthe dead
cháng shìto depart this life
20
Total compounds
15
As first character
85
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 20 compound words: 15 as the first character, 85 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.

shì
0.749596,118 co-occurrences
bìng
0.612116,286 co-occurrences
lín
0.59811 co-occurrences
xiǎng
0.59346,938 co-occurrences
0.55410 co-occurrences
xiě
0.45711 co-occurrences
0.45597,626 co-occurrences
yóu
0.45323 co-occurrences
ái
0.4265,078 co-occurrences
diǎn
0.42625,122 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

shāozòngjíshìHSK 7+

transient; fleeting

adjective
yīngniánzǎoshìHSK 7+

to pass away at the prime of one's life; to die young

phrase
zhuǎnshùnjíshìHSK 7+

to be gone in an instant

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo shì zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "逝" correctly, one must master the proper stroke order.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

中国35岁指挥家李疏瞳纽约车祸世 所在乐团以演奏中国音乐闻名

zhōng guó 3 5 suì zhǐ huī jiā lǐ shū 瞳 niǔ yuē chē huò shì shì suǒ zài lè tuán yǐ yǎn zòu zhōng guó yīn lè wén míng

Chinese conductor Li Shutong died in a car accident in New York The orchestra is famous for playing Chinese music

中時新聞網Feb 2026

吴中纯罹淋巴癌不到1个月病!名嘴曝真实案例“3天就走了”

wú zhōng chún 罹 lín bā ái bù dào 1 gè yuè bìng shì ! míng zuǐ pù zhēn shí àn lì 3 tiān jiù zǒu le

Wu Zhongchun died of lymphoma less than 1 month ago! Celebrities exposed real cases "3 days and left"

StheadlineFeb 2026

前TVB“御用烂仔”游飚猝终年57岁 好友黄文标叫救护车 送院前已...

qián T V B yù yòng làn zǐ yóu 飚 猝 shì zhōng nián 5 7 suì hǎo yǒu huáng wén biāo jiào jiù hù chē sòng yuàn qián yǐ . . .

Former TVB "Royal Rotten Boy" You Biao died suddenly at the age of 57 Friend Huang Wenbiao called an ambulance before being sent to the hospital...

StheadlineFeb 2026

前TVB“御用烂仔”游飚脑出血猝终年57岁 转行除甲醛捱逾20年变老板成...

qián T V B yù yòng làn zǐ yóu 飚 nǎo chū xiě 猝 shì zhōng nián 5 7 suì zhuǎn háng chú jiǎ 醛 捱 yú 2 0 nián biàn lǎo bǎn chéng . . .

Former TVB "Royal Rotten Boy" You Biao died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 57 After changing careers to remove formaldehyde for more than 20 years, he became a boss...

東方日報Feb 2026

正论:留港消费情已 出境外游按年升

zhèng lùn : liú gǎng xiāo fèi qíng yǐ shì chū jìng wài yóu àn nián shēng

Commentary: Consumption in Hong Kong is gone, and outbound travel is increasing year-on-year

Tatoeba

光阴飞如箭; 果蝇喜欢香蕉。

Guāngyīn fēishì rú jiàn; guǒyíng xǐhuan xiāngjiāo.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Tatoeba

汤姆世于2013年10月20日。

Tāngmǔ shìshi yú 2013 nián 10 yuè 20 rì.

Tom passed away October 20, 2013.

Tatoeba

她的美貌会随着时间而流

Tā de měimào huì suí zhe shíjiān ér liúshì.

Her beauty will fade in time.

Tatoeba

黑洞周围的时间要流得慢得多。

Hēidòng zhōuwéi de shíjiān yào liúshì de màn de duō.

Time passes more slowly around a black hole.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 逝 (shì) mean in Chinese?
逝 (shì) primarily means "(of flowing water or time) to pass by." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2066 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 逝 and 哲?
逝 (shì) and 哲 (zhé) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 辶 vs 口 (same 折 component).
How many strokes does 逝 have?
逝 is written with 10 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 逝?
The radical associated with 逝 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 逝?
逝 is composed of: 辶 (semantic), 折 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶折 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 逝?
Common words with 逝 include: 流逝 (liú shì, "(of time) to pass"); 逝去 (shì qù, "to elapse"); 消逝 (xiāo shì, "to fade away"); 飞逝 (fēi shì, "(of time) to pass quickly"); 逝世 (shì shì, "to pass away"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 逝 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 师 (teacher), 十 (ten), 时 (time, hour), 识 (to know, knowledge), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 逝 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 逝 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.