席 (xí): woven mat, seat, banquet
席 (xí) is a Chinese character meaning “woven mat.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 广 (structural), 廿 (structural) and 巾 (structural). It ranks #894 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 席 a cloth 巾 or straw 艹 mat in the house 广. Its radical form 巾 (cloth) appears in many related characters such as 师 (shī, teacher), 帮 (bāng, to help), 常 (cháng, always).
Definitions
- woven mat
- seat
- banquet
Etymology & Origin
ideographicA cloth 巾 or straw 艹 mat in the house 广
Decomposition: ⿸广⿱廿巾 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 席 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 席
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 首席noun | shǒu xí | chief (representative, correspondent etc) |
| 缺席verb | quē xí | to be absent |
| 席位noun | xí wèi | a seat (in a theater, stadium etc) |
| 一席之地phrase | yī xí zhī dì | (acknowledged) place |
| 证人席noun | zhèng rén xí | witness stand or box |
| 席卷verb | xí juǎn | to engulf |
| 观众席 | guān zhòng xí | audience seating area |
| 宴席noun | yàn xí | banquet |
| 联席会议noun | lián xí huì yì | joint conference |
| 入席verb | rù xí | to take one's seat |
| 即席verb | jí xí | impromptu |
| 酒席noun | jiǔ xí | feast |
| 筵席noun | yán xí | banquet |
| 退席verb | tuì xí | to absent oneself from a meeting |
| 列席verb | liè xí | to attend a meeting as a nonvoting delegate |
席 appears in 83 compound words: 12 as the first character, 59 as the last, and 29 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 席 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (4)
Example Sentences
席字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。
xí zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .
The way the character "席" is written is quite unique and has left a deep impression on me.
越南国家主席梁强与国家主席办公厅干部举行新春见面会
yuè nán guó jiā zhǔ xí liáng qiáng yǔ guó jiā zhǔ xí bàn gōng tīng gān bù jǔ háng xīn chūn jiàn miàn huì
Vietnamese President Liang Qiang and cadres of the President's Office held a New Year meeting
越南出席联合国人权理事会第61届会议
yuè nán chū xí lián gě guó rén quán lǐ shì huì dì 6 1 jiè huì yì
Viet Nam attends the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council
...讯/行政院9点说明关税最新情势!5部长出席
. . . xùn háng zhèng yuàn 9 diǎn shuō míng guān shuì zuì xīn qíng shì ! 5 bù cháng chū xí
... News/Executive Yuan 9 o'clock to explain the latest situation of tariffs! 5 ministers attended
川普加征15%全球关税 四大金控首席经济学家分析一次看
chuān pǔ jiā zhēng 1 5 quán qiú guān shuì sì dà jīn kòng shǒu xí jīng jì xué jiā fēn xī yī cì kàn
Trump imposed 15% global tariffs, and the chief economists of the four major financial holdings analyzed it at once
...率18国会议员联署 挺阿末三苏里任国盟主席
. . . lǜ 1 8 guó huì yì yuán lián shǔ tǐng ā mò sān sū lǐ rèn guó méng zhǔ xí
... Led 18 members of parliament to sign the petition to support Ahmad Sansuri as the chairman of the National League
你怎么解释你缺席的原因？
Nǐ zěnme jiěshì nǐ quēxí de yuányīn?
How do you account for your absence?
你认为汤姆和玛丽昨天为什么缺席了？。
Nǐ rènwéi Tāngmǔ hé Mǎlì zuótiān wèishénme quēxí le?.
Why do you think Tom and Mary were absent yesterday?
你能代替我出席会议吗?
Nǐ néng dàitì wǒ chūxí huìyì ma?
Can you fill in for me at the meeting?
仅三分之一的成员出席了会议。
Jǐn sān fēn zhī yī de chéngyuán chūxí le huìyì.
Only one third of the members turned up at the meeting.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 席 (xí) mean in Chinese?
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What are common words containing 席?
What characters sound the same as 席 (xí)?
Is 席 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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