遗 (yí): (bound form) to leave behind

遗 (yí) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to leave behind.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 辶 (structural) and 贵 (structural). It ranks #892 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 遗 to leave 辶 something valuable 贵 behind. Its radical form 辶 (walk) appears in many related characters such as 边 (biān, side), 过 (guò, to pass, past), 还 (hái, still, return).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to leave behind

Etymology & Origin

遗

ideographicTo leave 辶 something valuable 贵 behind

Decomposition: ⿺辶贵 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 遗

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
遗憾noun/adjectiveyí hànregret5
遗传verbyí chuánheredity6
遗产nounyí chǎnheritage6
遗址nounyí zhǐruins6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
遗嘱nounyí zhǔtestament
遗忘verbyí wàngto forget
遗弃verbyí qìto leave
遗体nounyí tǐremains (of a dead person)
遗言nounyí yánwords of the deceased
遗漏verbyí lòuto overlook
遗书nounyí shūposthumous writing
遗失verbyí shīto lose
遗物nounyí wùpersonal effects (of the deceased)
遗孀nounyí shuāng(formal) widow
遗留verbyí liúto leave behind
遗愿nounyí yuànfinal wishes of the departed
遗迹nounyí jìtrace
后遗症nounhòu yí zhèng(medicine) sequelae
遗骸nounyí hái(dead) human remains
100
Total compounds
60
As first character
21
As last character
19
As middle character

遗 appears in 100 compound words: 60 as the first character, 21 as the last, and 19 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 遗 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

址zhǐ
0.68583,363 co-occurrences
憾hàn
0.6424,272 co-occurrences
迹jì
0.62413,556 co-occurrences
嘱zhǔ
0.6212,878 co-occurrences
炜wěi
0.57621 co-occurrences
古gǔ
0.56735,060 co-occurrences
产chǎn
0.55023,844 co-occurrences
传chuán
0.49113,042 co-occurrences
拾shí
0.4781,602 co-occurrences
忘wàng
0.4712,650 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (14)

半坡遗址bàn pō yí zhǐHSK 6+

Banpo neolithic Yangshao culture archaeological site east of Xi'an 西安

phrase
暴露无遗pùlùwúyíHSK 6+

to be completely exposed; to come out into the open

phrase
补缺拾遗bǔ quē shí yíHSK 5+

see 拾遺補缺|拾遗补缺

phrase
不遗余力bùyíyúlìHSK 5+

to do all one can; to do one's utmost; to spare no effort; to go all-out

phrase
沧海遗珠cānghǎiyízhūHSK 7+

a person with talent or something valuable, but is neglected by the society

phrase
道不拾遗dàobùshíyíHSK 5+

synonym of 路不拾遺 /路不拾遗 (lùbùshíyí, “no one pockets lost property on the road”)

phrase
路不拾遗lùbùshíyíHSK 5+

Used to describe good social ethos.

phrase
纤悉无遗xiān xī wú yíHSK 7+

detailed and nothing left out (idiom); meticulous and comprehensive; not missing an iota

phrase
养虎遗患yǎnghǔyíhuànHSK 6+

to not eliminate bad people or the enemy and bring future trouble to oneself

phrase
一览无遗yīlǎnwúyíHSK 5+

to take in everything at a glance; to have an uninterrupted view

phrase
遗臭万年yíchòuwànniánHSK 5+

to go down in history as a byword of infamy

phrase
遗传工程yíchuán gōngchéngHSK 5+

genetic engineering

noun

Showing 12 of 14 idioms containing 遗.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他在公交车上遗失了钱包,幸好被好心人捡到归还。

Tā zài gōngjiāo chē shàng yíshī le qiánbāo, xìnghǎo bèi hǎoxīnrén jiǎndào guīhuán.

He lost his wallet on the bus; fortunately, a kind person found and returned it.

東方日報Feb 2026

900克黄金遗漏列车 女乘客失而复得

9 0 0 kè huáng jīn yí lòu liè chē nǚ chéng kè shī ér fù dé

900 grams of gold missing train Female passenger lost and recovered

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

新闻中的法律/遗赠税修法 两议题聚焦

xīn wén zhōng de fǎ lǜ yí zèng shuì xiū fǎ liǎng yì tí jù jiāo

The law/bequest tax amendment in the news focuses on two issues

StheadlineFeb 2026

... 开心被网民指跟阿仪越来越似 黄夏蕙等收遗产开老人院

. . . kāi xīn bèi wǎng mín zhǐ gēn ā yí yuè lái yuè sì huáng xià 蕙 děng shōu yí chǎn kāi lǎo rén yuàn

... Happy was pointed out by netizens that he was becoming more and more like Ah Yi, and Huang Xiahui and others received an inheritance to open a nursing home

百度新闻Feb 2026

谱写春日序曲!明城墙遗址公园梅花绽放

pǔ xiě chūn rì xù qū ! míng chéng qiáng yí zhǐ gōng yuán méi huā zhàn fàng

Composing the Prelude to Spring! Plum Blossoms Bloom at Ming City Wall Ruins Park

百度新闻Feb 2026

海洋邂逅非遗 上海海昌解锁新春文旅新玩法

hǎi yáng 邂 逅 fēi yí shǎng hǎi hǎi chāng xiè suǒ xīn chūn wén lǚ xīn wán fǎ

Ocean Encounter with Intangible Cultural Heritage: Shanghai Haichang Unlocks New Cultural Tourism Experiences for the Spring Festival

Tatoeba

汤姆遗失了他的钥匙。

Tāng mǔ yíshī le tā de yàoshi.

Tom has lost his keys.

Tatoeba

语言们的死亡令人遗憾而悲伤。

Yǔyán men de sǐwáng lìngrén yíhàn ér bēishāng.

The death of languages leaves people feeling regret and sorrow.

Tatoeba

我们的遗传基因真的和黑猩猩几乎一样吗?

Wǒmen de yíchuán jīyīn zhēnde hé hēixīngxīng jīhū yīyàng ma?

Is it true that our genetic heritage is almost the same as that of chimpanzees?

Tatoeba

哦!我很遗憾听到这个消息。

ó! wǒ hěn yíhàn tīngdào zhège xiāoxi.

Oh! I'm sorry to hear that.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 遗 (yí) mean in Chinese?
遗 (yí) primarily means "(bound form) to leave behind." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #892 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 遗 have?
遗 is written with 12 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 遗?
The radical associated with 遗 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 遗?
遗 is composed of: 辶 (structural), 贵 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶贵 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 遗?
Common words with 遗 include: 遗憾 (yí hàn, "regret"); 遗嘱 (yí zhǔ, "testament"); 遗传 (yí chuán, "heredity"); 遗产 (yí chǎn, "heritage"); 遗忘 (yí wàng, "to forget"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 遗 (yí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yí: 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 遗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 遗 and the traditional form is 遺.

Practice writing 遗 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.