(): mother's sister, aunt

() is a Chinese character meaning “mother's sister.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2229 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, woman. Its radical form (woman) appears in many related characters such as (, woman), (nǎi, grandmother, milk), (, she).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. mother's sister
  2. aunt

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女夷 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounā yímaternal aunt3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yí mā(coll.) mother's sister
xiǎo yí zi(coll.) wife's younger sister
yí fuhusband of mother's sister
yí pó(strictly speaking) sister of one's maternal grandmother
yí zhàngmother's sister's husband
yí mǔmother's sister
dà yí zisister-in-law
dà yíaunt (mother's eldest sister)
yí fumother's sister's husband
qī dà gū bā dà yídistant relatives
yí tài taiconcubine
dà ā yíauntie, eldest of sisters in mother's family
xiǎo ā yíauntie, youngest of sisters in mother's family
dà yí māmother's eldest sister (older than one's mother)
sān ā yíauntie, third eldest of sisters in mother's family
27
Total compounds
52
As first character
37
As last character
11
As middle character

appears in 27 compound words: 52 as the first character, 37 as the last, and 11 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

shēng
0.6182,718 co-occurrences
0.5712,472 co-occurrences
ā
0.51617,262 co-occurrences
zhàng
0.4742,310 co-occurrences
mèi
0.472570 co-occurrences
0.4611,674 co-occurrences
niáng
0.4591,764 co-occurrences
jiù
0.446666 co-occurrences
0.4255,622 co-occurrences
0.414804 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位士穿着得体,举止优雅大方。

zhè wèi yí shì chuān zhe dé tī , jǔ zhǐ yōu yǎ dà fāng .

This lady was well-dressed and carried herself with grace and poise.

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

人贩子“梅”落网,正义不放过任何一个恶人 | 新京...

rén fàn zǐ méi yí luò wǎng , zhèng yì bù fàng guò rèn hé yī gè è rén xīn jīng . . .

Human Trafficker "Aunt Mei" Arrested: Justice Will Not Let a Single Villain Escape | Beijing News...

三立新聞網Mar 2026

中国人口贩子“梅”逃20年落网!恐死刑

zhōng guó rén kǒu fàn zǐ méi yí táo 2 0 nián luò wǎng ! kǒng sǐ xíng

Chinese human trafficker "Aunt Mei" captured after 20 years on the run! Faces possible death penalty

99 健康网Mar 2026

青岛大5小时挖蛏近百斤,科学解读蛏的营养价值和...

qīng dǎo dà yí 5 xiǎo shí wā 蛏 jìn bǎi jīn , kē xué jiě dòu 蛏 de yíng yǎng jià zhí hé . . .

Aunt Qingdao dug nearly 100 pounds of clams in 5 hours, scientifically interpreting the nutritional value of clams and...

99 健康网Mar 2026

青岛大5小时挖蛏近百斤?蛏子的营养和吃法值得了...

qīng dǎo dà yí 5 xiǎo shí wā 蛏 jìn bǎi jīn ? 蛏 zǐ de yíng yǎng hé chī fǎ zhí dé le . . .

Aunt Qingdao digs nearly 100 pounds of clams in 5 hours? The nutrition and eating of razor clams are worth it...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

【艺大森友会】张嘉真/早餐店阿

yì dà sēn yǒu huì zhāng jiā zhēn zǎo cān diàn ā yí

【Art University Forest Friendship Association】Zhang Jiazhen/Breakfast shop aunt

Tatoeba

你叔叔给你阿剪头发。

Nǐ shūshu gěi nǐ āyí jiǎn tóufa.

Your uncle gives your aunt a haircut.

Tatoeba

我阿在她的花园种蕃茄。

Wǒ āyí zài tā de huāyuán zhǒng fānqié.

My aunt grows tomatoes in her garden.

Tatoeba

我的阿给了我一台摄影机。

Wǒ de āyí gěi le wǒ yī tái shèyǐngjī.

My aunt gave me a camera.

Tatoeba

我和我阿有种特别的情谊。

Wǒ hé wǒ āyí yǒuzhǒng tèbié de qíngyì.

I have a special relationship with my aunt.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 姨 (yí) mean in Chinese?
姨 (yí) primarily means "mother's sister." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #2229 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 姨 have?
姨 is written with 9 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 姨?
The radical associated with 姨 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 姨?
姨 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 夷 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女夷 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 姨?
Common words with 姨 include: 阿姨 (ā yí, "maternal aunt"); 姨妈 (yí mā, "(coll.) mother's sister"); 小姨子 (xiǎo yí zi, "(coll.) wife's younger sister"); 姨父 (yí fu, "husband of mother's sister"); 姨婆 (yí pó, "(strictly speaking) sister of one's maternal grandmother"). There are over 27 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 姨 (yí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yí: 一 (one), 衣 (clothing), 医 (medicine), 宜 (proper), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 姨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 姨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.