医 (yī): medicine

医 (yī) is a Chinese character meaning “medicine.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 匸 (phonetic) and 矢 (semantic). It ranks #482 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 医 arrow. Its radical form 疒 (illness) appears in many related characters such as 病 (bìng, illness), 疼 (téng, ache), 痛 (tòng, pain).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. medicine

Etymology & Origin

医

pictophoneticarrow

Decomposition: ⿷匸矢 (layout: surround-from-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 医

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
医生nounyī shēngdoctor1
医院nounyī yuànhospital1
医疗verbyī liáomedical treatment5
医学nounyī xuémedicine5
医药nounyī yàomedical care and medicines6
中医nounzhōng yītraditional Chinese medical science5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
法医nounfǎ yīforensic pathologist
医师nounyī shīdoctor
牙医nounyá yīdentist
医学院nounyī xué yuànmedical school
兽医nounshòu yīveterinarian
医护verbyī hùdoctors and nurses
医务室nounyī wù shìinfirmary
医务nounyī wùmedical affairs
行医verbxíng yīto practice medicine (esp. in private practice)
医治verbyī zhìto treat (an illness)
巫医nounwū yīwitch doctor
医术nounyī shùmedical expertise
医疗费yī liáo fèimedical expenses
军医nounjūn yīmilitary doctor
主治医师zhǔ zhì yī shīattending physician
100
Total compounds
41
As first character
25
As last character
34
As middle character

医 appears in 100 compound words: 41 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 34 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 医 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

疗liáo
0.66538,929 co-occurrences
院yuàn
0.613130,947 co-occurrences
学xué
0.57384,628 co-occurrences
药yào
0.56913,752 co-occurrences
综zōng
0.4925,108 co-occurrences
疮chuāng
0.47216 co-occurrences
肤fū
0.4721,444 co-occurrences
科kē
0.46931,000 co-occurrences
兽shòu
0.4663,783 co-occurrences
诊zhěn
0.4593,321 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

赤脚医生chìjiǎo yīshēngHSK 7+

barefoot doctor

noun
核子医学hé zǐ yī xuéHSK 6+

(Tw) nuclear medicine

phrase
讳疾忌医huìjíjìyīHSK 7+

to avoid seeking medical attention for fear of disease; to conceal one's shortcomings for fear of criticism

phrase
久病成医jiǔbìngchéngyīHSK 3+

experience is the best teacher

phrase
临床医学línchuáng yīxuéHSK 5+

clinical medicine

noun
医护人员yī hù rén yuánHSK 3+

medical personnel; doctors and nurses

phrase
医学专家yī xué zhuān jiāHSK 4+

medical expert; medical specialist

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

医院离这里不远,走路十分钟就能到。

Yīyuàn lí zhèlǐ bù yuǎn, zǒulù shí fēnzhōng jiù néng dào.

The hospital is not far from here; it's a ten-minute walk.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

神韵展现对神的信仰 令牙医“深受鼓舞”

shén yùn zhǎn xiàn duì shén de xìn yǎng lìng yá yī shēn shòu gǔ wǔ

Shen Yun shows faith in God and makes dentists "deeply encouraged"

百度新闻Feb 2026

跨越八百里守护 湘雅医院助超早产三胞胎平安回家团圆

kuà yuè bā bǎi lǐ shǒu hù 湘 yǎ yī yuàn zhù chāo zǎo chǎn sān bāo tāi píng ān huí jiā tuán yuán

Spanning 800 miles to protect Xiangya Hospital to help the ultra-premature triplets return home safely and reunite

百度新闻Feb 2026

80天生死坚守:湘雅二医院重症医学科“5170”的..

tiān shēng sǐ jiān shǒu 湘 yǎ èr yī yuàn chóng zhèng yī xué kē de . .

80 days of life and death: Xiangya No.2 Hospital's "5170" C...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...层|东阿九旬老人的别样新春:养老院里有“医..

. . . céng dōng ā jiǔ xún lǎo rén de bié yàng xīn chūn yǎng lǎo yuàn lǐ yǒu yī . .

... Layer | Dong'a ninety-year-olds of a different kind of New Year: nursing home in the "med...

百度新闻Feb 2026

护航苏翊鸣夺金 四川省骨科医院:“我们做到了!”

hù háng sū 翊 míng duó jīn sì chuān shěng gū kē yī yuàn wǒ men zuò dào le !

Su Yiming's gold medal Sichuan Orthopedic Hospital: "We did it!"

Tatoeba

由医生来决定某人何时该死是对的吗?

Yóu yīshēng lái juédìng mǒurén héshí gāi sǐ shì duì de ma?

Is it right for a doctor to decide when someone should die?

Tatoeba

所有的医药费我大概要付多少?

Suǒyǒu de yīyàofèi wǒ dàgài yào fù duōshao?

About how much will I have to pay for all the treatments?

Tatoeba

你去看过医生了吗?

Nǐ qù kàn guo yīshēng le ma?

Did you go to see a doctor?

Tatoeba

你有认识好的牙医吗?

Nǐ yǒu rènshi hǎo de yáyī ma?

Do you know a good dentist?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 矢 (arrow) component

疒 Radical Family — Characters sharing the illness radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced yī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 医 (yī) mean in Chinese?
医 (yī) primarily means "medicine." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #482 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 医 have?
医 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 医?
The radical associated with 医 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 医?
医 is composed of: 匸 (phonetic), 矢 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿷匸矢 with a surround-from-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 医?
Common words with 医 include: 医生 (yī shēng, "doctor"); 医院 (yī yuàn, "hospital"); 医疗 (yī liáo, "medical treatment"); 医学 (yī xué, "medicine"); 法医 (fǎ yī, "forensic pathologist"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 医 (yī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yī: 一 (one), 以 (to use), 意 (meaning, idea), 已 (already), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 医 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 医 and the traditional form is 醫.

Practice writing 医 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.