(): to feed, to raise

() is a Chinese character meaning “to feed, to raise.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1944 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, food. Its radical form (eat) appears in many related characters such as (fàn, meal, rice), 饿 (è, hungry), (guǎn, restaurant, hall).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to feed, to raise

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfood

Decomposition: ⿰饣司 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
sì liàofeed
sì yǎngto raise
sì yǎng yuánzookeeper
dòng wù xìng sì liàofeed made of animal products
sì yǎng zhěfeeder
sì yǎng yèstock farming
sì yǎng chǎngfarm
sì zhǔpet owner
bí sì fǎnasal feeding
sì yùto rear (an animal)
cǎo sìgrass-fed
sì cǎoforage grass
gǔ sìgrain-fed
bí sìnasal feeding
sì cáofeeding trough
15
Total compounds
67
As first character
20
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 15 compound words: 67 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 13 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.

yǎng
0.71214,412 co-occurrences
wéi
0.576612 co-occurrences
chù
0.516888 co-occurrences
chǒng
0.492456 co-occurrences
liào
0.4878,430 co-occurrences
zhù
0.472168 co-occurrences
qín
0.472372 co-occurrences
zhū
0.463570 co-occurrences
0.4591,116 co-occurrences
xùn
0.447120 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个农场专门养肉牛,每年可以出栏上千头。

Zhè gè nóngchǎng zhuānmén sìyǎng ròuniú, měinián kěyǐ chūlán shàngqiān tóu.

This farm specializes in raising beef cattle and can produce thousands of heads annually.

NewtalkMar 2026

...萌宠同乐会 从陪伴到理解加入萌友圈 增进主萌宠关系福利

. . . méng chǒng tóng lè huì cóng péi bàn dào lǐ jiě jiā rù méng yǒu juān zēng jìn sì zhǔ méng chǒng guān xì fú lì

BastillepostMar 2026

...大哭” 11岁橘猫左顾右盼露错愕反应萌翻

. . . dà kū 1 1 suì jú māo zuǒ gù yòu pàn lù cuò 愕 fǎn yīng méng fān sì zhǔ

...“burst into tears” 11-year-old orange cat looks around in bewilderment, melting its owner’s heart

BastillepostMar 2026

爱犬外出玩耍带跛脚流浪犬回家 主心软收留揭“可爱骗局”哭笑不得

ài quǎn wài chū wán shuǎ dài 跛 jiǎo liú làng quǎn huí jiā sì zhǔ xīn ruǎn shōu liú jiē kě ài piàn jú kū xiào bù dé

The dog goes out to play and brings the lame stray dog home, and the owner is soft-hearted and takes in to reveal the "cute scam", crying and laughing

BastillepostMar 2026

爱猫雪中嬉戏超兴奋 主兴奋录影细看惊觉:在捕猎?

ài māo xuě zhōng xī xì chāo xīng fèn sì zhǔ xīng fèn lù yǐng xì kàn jīng jué : zài bǔ liè ?

The owner was excited to watch the video excitedly: Hunting?

NewsFeb 2026

北港黄狗疑遭主高处丢下 警厘清其犯案动机

běi gǎng huáng gǒu yí zāo sì zhǔ gāo chǔ diū xià jǐng lí qīng qí fàn àn dòng jī

Yellow Dog in Beigang Suspected of Being Thrown from Height by Owner; Police Investigate Motive

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 饲 (sì) mean in Chinese?
饲 (sì) primarily means "to feed, to raise." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1944 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 饲 and 词?
饲 (sì) and 词 (cí) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 饣 vs 讠 (same 司 component).
How many strokes does 饲 have?
饲 is written with 8 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 饲?
The radical associated with 饲 is 饣 (eat). This radical appears in many characters related to eat.
What are the components of 饲?
饲 is composed of: 饣 (semantic), 司 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰饣司 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 饲?
Common words with 饲 include: 饲料 (sì liào, "feed"); 饲养 (sì yǎng, "to raise"); 饲养员 (sì yǎng yuán, "zookeeper"); 动物性饲料 (dòng wù xìng sì liào, "feed made of animal products"); 饲养者 (sì yǎng zhě, "feeder"). There are over 15 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 饲 (sì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sì: 伺 (to watch), 丝 (silk), 司 (to take charge of), 私 (personal), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 饲 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 饲 and the traditional form is 飤.

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.