祀 (sì): to sacrifice, to offer libation to

祀 (sì) is a Chinese character meaning “to sacrifice.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 礻 (semantic) and 巳 (phonetic). It ranks #2811 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 祀 spirit. Its radical form 礻 (spirit) appears in many related characters such as 票 (piào, ticket), 视 (shì, (literary, or bound form) to look at), 示 (shì, to show).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 礻 spirit7 strokesFrequency #2811礻 semantic巳 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to sacrifice
  2. to offer libation to

Etymology & Origin

祀

pictophoneticspirit

Decomposition: ⿰礻巳 (layout: left-right)

Components:礻semantic巳phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
祭祀jì sìto offer sacrifices to the gods or ancestors
祀物sì wùsacrificial objects
祀神sì shénto offer sacrifices to the gods
奉祀fèng sìto worship
郊祀jiāo sìpair of annual sacrificial ceremonies held by the emperor in ancient times: one in the southern suburbs of the capita...
5
Total compounds
40
As first character
60
As last character
0
As middle character

祀 appears in 5 compound words: 40 as the first character, 60 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 祀 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

祭jì
0.76979,728 co-occurrences
奉fèng
0.59525,332 co-occurrences
贤xián
0.4783,246 co-occurrences
陪péi
0.4592,958 co-occurrences
郊jiāo
0.4382,850 co-occurrences
神shén
0.43216,332 co-occurrences
庙miào
0.4302,934 co-occurrences
殿diàn
0.4234,848 co-occurrences
崇chóng
0.4103,618 co-occurrences
主zhǔ
0.39430,078 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

祀字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。

sì zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The character "祀" has a very distinctive writing style that left a deep impression on me.

SmzdmApr 2026

肯德基祭祀祖先,当代年轻人这种做法是礼乐崩坏还是传...

kěn dé jī jì sì zǔ xiān , dāng dài nián qīng rén zhè zhǒng zuò fǎ shì lǐ lè bēng huài hái shì chuán . . .

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Apr 2026

山西太原:千年晋祠话寒食 文明祭祀寄哀思

shān xī tài yuán : qiān nián jìn cí huà hán shí wén míng jì sì jì āi sī

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

消防实验警示:春季风大火灾风险高,祭祀飞火引燃杂草可迅速蔓延

xiāo fáng shí yàn jǐng shì : chūn jì fēng dà huǒ zāi fēng xiǎn gāo , jì sì fēi huǒ yǐn rán zá cǎo kě xùn sù màn yán

Fire Safety Warning: Strong winds in spring increase the risk of fire; sparks from ancestral rites can ignite dry grass, causing the fire to spread rapidly

Tatoeba

祭祀结束之后，天就晴了。

Jìsì jiéshù zhīhòu, tiān jiù qíng le.

The sky cleared up after the ritual was over.

Character Family

礻 Radical Family — Characters sharing the spirit radical

祷dǎo福fú祸huò礼lǐ祈qí神shén祥xiáng祖zǔ禁jīn票piào

Related Characters

票piào视shì示shì礼lǐ社shè祝zhù神shén福fú禁jīn祖zǔ

Homophones — Characters pronounced sì

丝sī司sī私sī思sī斯sī撕sī死sǐ四sì寺sì饲sì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 祀 (sì) mean in Chinese?
祀 (sì) primarily means "to sacrifice." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2811 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 祀 have?
祀 is written with 7 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 祀?
The radical associated with 祀 is 礻 (spirit). This radical appears in many characters related to spirit.
What are the components of 祀?
祀 is composed of: 礻 (semantic), 巳 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰礻巳 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 祀?
Common words with 祀 include: 祭祀 (jì sì, "to offer sacrifices to the gods or ancestors"); 祀物 (sì wù, "sacrificial objects"); 祀神 (sì shén, "to offer sacrifices to the gods"); 奉祀 (fèng sì, "to worship"); 郊祀 (jiāo sì, "pair of annual sacrificial ceremonies held by the emperor in ancient times: one in the southern suburbs of the capita..."). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 祀 (sì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sì: 丝 (silk), 司 (to take charge of), 私 (personal), 思 (to think, thought), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 祀 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 祀 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 祀 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.