帜 (zhì): flag

帜 (zhì) is a Chinese character meaning “flag.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 巾 (semantic) and 只 (phonetic). It ranks #2639 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 帜 curtain. Its radical form 巾 (cloth) appears in many related characters such as 师 (shī, teacher), 帮 (bāng, to help), 常 (cháng, always).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 巾 cloth8 strokesFrequency #2639巾 semantic只 phonetic

Definitions

  1. flag

Etymology & Origin

帜

pictophoneticcurtain

Decomposition: ⿰巾只 (layout: left-right)

Components:巾semantic只phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
旗帜qí zhìensign
独树一帜dú shù yī zhìlit. to fly one's banner on a solitary tree (idiom)
旗帜鲜明qí zhì xiān míngto show one's colors
别树一帜bié shù yī zhìlit. to fly one's banner on a solitary tree (idiom)
标帜biāo zhìbanner
徽帜huī zhìbanner
6
Total compounds
0
As first character
83
As last character
17
As middle character

帜 appears in 6 compound words: 0 as the first character, 83 as the last, and 17 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 帜 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

旗qí
0.75053,308 co-occurrences
树shù
0.4391,602 co-occurrences
飘piāo
0.420192 co-occurrences
独dú
0.3831,416 co-occurrences
挂guà
0.379402 co-occurrences
鲜xiān
0.357516 co-occurrences
蓝lán
0.353414 co-occurrences
骄jiāo
0.35266 co-occurrences
竖shù
0.35196 co-occurrences
伟wěi
0.347306 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

别树一帜biéshùyīzhìHSK 7+

to have a distinct style of one's own

phrase
独树一帜dúshùyīzhìHSK 7+

to develop one’s own unique style

phrase
旗帜鲜明qízhìxiānmíngHSK 7+

to have a clear-cut stand; one's attitude or position is clearly defined

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

红旗帜在风中飘扬。

Hóng qízhì zài fēng zhōng piāoyáng.

The red flag is waving in the wind.

Tatoeba

反叛者践踏敌人的旗帜，以示挑衅。

Fǎnpàn zhě jiàntà dírén de qízhì, yǐ shì tiǎoxìn.

Rebels stomped on the enemy’s flags as a sign of defiance.

Tatoeba

旗帜是国家象征。

Qízhì shì guójiā xiàngzhēng.

A flag is a national symbol.

Character Family

巾 Radical Family — Characters sharing the cloth radical

常cháng幢chuáng帆fān帽mào幕mù饰shì帷wéi帐zhàng帮bāng币bì

Related Characters

师shī帮bāng常cháng市shì带dài币bì布bù希xī巾jīn帅shuài

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhì

职zhí支zhī汁zhī知zhī直zhí值zhí止zhǐ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 帜 (zhì) mean in Chinese?
帜 (zhì) primarily means "flag." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2639 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 帜 and 识?
帜 (zhì) and 识 (shí) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 巾 vs 讠 (same 只 component).
How many strokes does 帜 have?
帜 is written with 8 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 帜?
The radical associated with 帜 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.
What are the components of 帜?
帜 is composed of: 巾 (semantic), 只 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰巾只 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 帜?
Common words with 帜 include: 旗帜 (qí zhì, "ensign"); 独树一帜 (dú shù yī zhì, "lit. to fly one's banner on a solitary tree (idiom)"); 旗帜鲜明 (qí zhì xiān míng, "to show one's colors"); 别树一帜 (bié shù yī zhì, "lit. to fly one's banner on a solitary tree (idiom)"); 标帜 (biāo zhì, "banner"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 帜 (zhì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhì: 职 (job, duty), 支 (to support), 汁 (juice), 知 (to know), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 帜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 帜 and the traditional form is 幟.

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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.