乙 (yǐ): second of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干, second in order, letter "B" or Roman "II" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc
乙 (yǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “second of the ten heavenly stems 十天干.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 乙 (second). It ranks #1853 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically pictographic, 乙 a swallow. Its radical form 乙 (second) appears in many related characters such as 九 (jiǔ, nine), 也 (yě, also), 习 (xí, (bound form) to practice).
Definitions
- second of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干
- second in order
- letter "B" or Roman "II" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc
Etymology & Origin
pictographicA swallow
Stroke Order
Practice writing 乙 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 乙醇 | yǐ chún | ethanol |
| 乙烯 | yǐ xī | ethylene |
| 聚乙烯 | jù yǐ xī | polythene |
| 乙酸 | yǐ suān | acetic acid (CH3COOH) |
| 乙醚 | yǐ mí | ether |
| 乙炔 | yǐ quē | acetylene |
| 聚氯乙烯 | jù lǜ yǐ xī | polyvinyl chloride (PVC) |
| 聚苯乙烯 | jù běn yǐ xī | polystyrene |
| 乙肝 | yǐ gān | hepatitis B |
| 乙巳 | yǐ sì | forty-second year B6 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1965 or 2025 |
| 乙状结肠 | yǐ zhuàng jié cháng | sigmoid colon (anatomy) |
| 苯乙烯 | běn yǐ xī | Styrene |
| 乙方 | yǐ fāng | party B (in a contract) (cf. 甲方[jia3 fang1], party A) |
| 乙未 | yǐ wèi | thirty-second year B8 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1955 or 2015 |
| 甲乙 | jiǎ yǐ | first two of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干[shi2 tian1 gan1] |
乙 appears in 64 compound words: 64 as the first character, 5 as the last, and 31 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 乙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (2)
Example Sentences
乙字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。
yǐ zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .
The character "乙" has different usages in different contexts.
葛兰素史克乙肝疫苗安在时重返中国市场
葛 lán sù shǐ kè yǐ gān yì miáo ān zài shí chóng fǎn zhōng guó shì chǎng
When will GlaxoSmithKline's hepatitis B vaccine return to the Chinese market?
铨叙部拟重订考绩法 公务员考绩“取消甲乙丙丁”且拿掉75%天花板
铨 xù bù nǐ chóng dìng kǎo jì fǎ gōng wù yuán kǎo jì qǔ xiāo jiǎ yǐ bǐng dīng qiě ná diào 7 5 tiān huā bǎn
The Ministry of Personnel Affairs plans to revise the performance appraisal system, eliminating the "A, B, C, D" grading system for civil servants and removing the 75% cap.
逾半数乙肝患者确诊后未获转介 研究确认病毒载量成...
yú bàn shǔ yǐ gān huàn zhě què zhěn hòu wèi huò zhuǎn jiè yán jiū què rèn bìng dú zài liàng chéng . . .
More than half of hepatitis B patients are not referred after diagnosis; study confirms viral load is a key factor...
印度对中国产氯甲酸乙酯 启动反倾销调查
yìn dù duì zhōng guó chǎn 氯 jiǎ suān yǐ 酯 qǐ dòng fǎn qīng xiāo diào chá
India Launches Anti-Dumping Investigation into Ethyl Chlorformate from China
睇错市!“西贡大地主”妻1600万沽中环乙厦全层 七年跌价约65%
睇 cuò shì ! xī gòng dà dì zhǔ qī 1 6 0 0 wàn gū zhōng huán yǐ xià quán céng qī nián diē jià yuē 6 5
Misjudged the market! Wife of “Saigon Landlord” Sells Entire Floor of Central Grade B Building for HK$16 Million; Price Plummets About 65% Over Seven Years
甲之蜜糖，乙之砒霜。
Jiǎ zhī mì táng, yǐ zhī pīshuāng.
One man's meat is another man's poison.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 乙 (yǐ) mean in Chinese?
How many strokes does 乙 have?
What is the radical of 乙?
What are common words containing 乙?
What characters sound the same as 乙 (yǐ)?
Is 乙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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