(): personal, private, selfish

() is a Chinese character meaning “personal.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1022 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 厶 provides the meaning and pronunciation. Its radical form (grain) appears in many related characters such as (qiū, autumn), (, branch of study), (, to hire).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. personal
  2. private
  3. selfish

Etymology & Origin

ideographic厶 provides the meaning and pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰禾厶 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
nounsī rénprivate5
nounyǐn sīsecrets6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zì sīselfish
sī xiàin private
sī jiāprivate
zǒu sīto smuggle
sī shìpersonal matters
sī shēng huóprivate life
sī bēnto elope
wú sīselfless
sī lìprivately-run
sī shēng zǐillegitimate son
sī zìprivate
sī cángto keep hidden
sī qíngpersonal considerations
sī yǔto discuss in whispered tones
sī yǒuprivate
100
Total compounds
65
As first character
20
As last character
15
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 65 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 15 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.

yǐn
0.52011,949 co-occurrences
0.48197,884 co-occurrences
zǒu
0.46827,822 co-occurrences
liàng
0.46010,608 co-occurrences
rén
0.458219,786 co-occurrences
bēn
0.4566,834 co-occurrences
zhái
0.45111,712 co-occurrences
0.4451,470 co-occurrences
yuè
0.4431,806 co-occurrences
0.4394,940 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (18)

dàgōngwúsīHSK 5+

selfless and impartial

phrase
dǒusīpīxiūHSK 5+

to fight selfishness and criticize revisionism

phrase
gōngbàosīchóuHSK 7+

to use one's official position to avenge a personal grudge

phrase
gōng ér wàng sīHSK 5+

for the common good and forgetting personal interests (idiom); to behave altruistically; selfless

phrase
gōngsījiāngùHSK 6+

to take into consideration both the public and the private interest

phrase
guān bào sī chóuHSK 7+

to take advantage of official post for personal revenge (idiom)

phrase
guójì sīfǎHSK 5+

private international law

noun
jiǎgōngjìsīHSK 5+

to exploit public office for private gain

phrase
jiédǎngyíngsīHSK 7+

to form cliques to pursue private gain

phrase
qièqièsīyǔHSK 5+

synonym of 竊竊私語 /窃窃私语 (qièqièsīyǔ, “to talk in whispers”)

phrase
qièqièsīyǔHSK 7+

to talk in whispers

phrase
yǐ quán móu sīHSK 7+

to use one's position for personal gain (idiom)

phrase

Showing 12 of 18 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le sī zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "私" in the dictionary.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

中国资产大缩水 全球十大募巨头难套现

zhōng guó zī chǎn dà suō shuǐ quán qiú shí dà sī mù jù tóu nán tào xiàn

China's assets have shrunk sharply, and it is difficult for the world's top ten private equity giants to cash out

LtnFeb 2026

离婚黄子佼半年!孟耿如近况曝光 周丹薇泄下互动

lí hūn huáng zǐ 佼 bàn nián ! mèng gěng rú jìn kuàng pù guāng zhōu dān 薇 xiè sī xià hù dòng

Divorced Huang Zijiao for half a year! Meng Gengru's recent situation was exposed, and Zhou Danwei leaked private interactions

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...泪崩30秒!黄金世代队友齐聚 揭“野兽”下真面目

. . . lèi bēng 3 0 miǎo ! huáng jīn shì dài duì yǒu qí jù jiē yě shòu sī xià zhēn miàn mù

... Tears broke for 30 seconds! Golden Generation teammates gathered to reveal the true face of the "Beast" in private

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

...产折价40-50%也无法套现?全球10大募巨头遭遇“退出寒冬”-FX168

. . . chǎn zhé jià 4 0 5 0 yě wú fǎ tào xiàn ? quán qiú 1 0 dà sī mù jù tóu zāo yù tuì chū hán dōng F X 1 6 8

... 40-50% discount cannot be cashed out? The world's top 10 private equity giants suffered an "exit winter" - FX168

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...出轨小三24次!性爱行事历曝光 人妻试图了遭拒怒告索偿

. . . chū guǐ xiǎo sān 2 4 cì ! xìng ài háng shì lì pù guāng rén qī shì tú sī le zāo jù nù gào suǒ cháng

... Cheating mistress 24 times! The sex calendar was exposed, and the wife tried to be private but was rejected and angrily sued for compensation

Tatoeba

注意不要侵犯她的隐

Zhùyì bù yào qīnfàn tā de yǐnsī.

Take care not to intrude upon her privacy.

Tatoeba

警察以走为由逮捕了他。

Jǐngchá yǐ zǒusī wèi yóu dàibǔ le tā.

The police arrested him for smuggling.

Tatoeba

我们能下谈谈吗?

Wǒmen néng sīxià tántán ma?

Can we talk in private?

Tatoeba

你在立学校读书吗?

Nǐ zài sīlìxuéxiào dúshū ma?

Do you go to a private school?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 私 (sī) mean in Chinese?
私 (sī) primarily means "personal." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1022 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 私 have?
私 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 私?
The radical associated with 私 is 禾 (grain). This radical appears in many characters related to grain.
What are the components of 私?
私 is composed of: 禾 (structural), 厶 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰禾厶 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 私?
Common words with 私 include: 私人 (sī rén, "private"); 自私 (zì sī, "selfish"); 隐私 (yǐn sī, "secrets"); 私下 (sī xià, "in private"); 私家 (sī jiā, "private"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 私 (sī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sī: 丝 (silk), 司 (to take charge of), 思 (to think, thought), 斯 (Slovakia), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 私 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 私 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.