苡 (yǐ): used in 芣苡

苡 (yǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “used in 芣苡.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 以 (phonetic). It ranks #5876 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 苡 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 蒸 (zhēng, to steam), 草 (cǎo, grass), 花 (huā, flower).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. used in 芣苡

Etymology & Origin

苡

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹以 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
薏苡yì yǐJob's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi)
苡米yǐ mǐgrains of Job's tears plant 薏苡
芣苡fú yǐvariant of 芣苢
3
Total compounds
33
As first character
67
As last character
0
As middle character

苡 appears in 3 compound words: 33 as the first character, 67 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 苡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

任rèn
0.48110 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

绿豆薏苡仁汤:绿豆30克、薏苡仁30克、冰糖适量,煮汤。

lǜ dòu yì yǐ rén tāng : lǜ dòu 3 0 kè , yì yǐ rén 3 0 kè , bīng táng shì liàng , zhǔ tāng .

Mung Bean and Job's Tears Soup: 30 grams of mung beans, 30 grams of Job's tears, and rock sugar to taste; boil to make a soup.

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

薏苡仁味甘、淡,性凉,归脾、肺经。

yì yǐ rén wèi gān , dàn , xìng liáng , guī pí , fèi jīng .

Coix seed has a sweet and bland taste, a cool nature, and enters the Spleen and Lung meridians.

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

贾淑红介绍,芒种时节湿气渐重,不妨适当多吃些薏苡仁。

gǔ shū hóng jiè shào , máng zhǒng shí jié shī qì jiàn chóng , bù fáng shì dāng duō chī xiē yì yǐ rén .

Jia Shuhong explained that as the Mangzhong solar term approaches, humidity gradually increases, so it’s a good idea to eat a little more coix seed.

中国新闻网·生活Apr 2026

推荐赤小豆薏苡仁汤。

tuī jiàn chì xiǎo dòu yì yǐ rén tāng .

We recommend the red adzuki bean and coix seed soup.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (grass) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 苡 (yǐ) mean in Chinese?
苡 (yǐ) primarily means "used in 芣苡." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #5876 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 苡 and 拟?
苡 (yǐ) and 拟 (nǐ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 扌 (same 以 component).
How many strokes does 苡 have?
苡 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 苡?
The radical associated with 苡 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 苡?
苡 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 以 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹以 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 苡?
Common words with 苡 include: 薏苡 (yì yǐ, "Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi)"); 苡米 (yǐ mǐ, "grains of Job's tears plant 薏苡"); 芣苡 (fú yǐ, "variant of 芣苢"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
Is 苡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 苡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 苡 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.