纸 (zhǐ): paper

纸 (zhǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “paper.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 纟 (semantic) and 氏 (phonetic). It ranks #1019 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 纸 silk. Its radical form 纟 (silk) appears in many related characters such as 系 (xì, to connect), 累 (lèi, tired), 绍 (shào, to continue).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. paper

Etymology & Origin

纸

pictophoneticsilk

Decomposition: ⿰纟氏 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 纸

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
报纸nounbào zhǐnewspaper3
纸巾nounzhǐ jīnpaper towel4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
纸条nounzhǐ tiáoslip of paper
纸杯nounzhǐ bēipaper cup
纸牌nounzhǐ páiplaying card
图纸nountú zhǐblueprint
纸张nounzhǐ zhāngpaper
卫生纸nounwèi shēng zhǐtoilet paper
包装纸nounbāo zhuāng zhǐwrapping paper
墙纸nounqiáng zhǐwallpaper
纸袋nounzhǐ dàipaper bag
纸板nounzhǐ bǎncardboard
手纸nounshǒu zhǐtoilet paper
纸币nounzhǐ bìbank notes
纸片nounzhǐ piàna piece, scrap or fragment of paper
餐巾纸nouncān jīn zhǐpaper napkin
废纸nounfèi zhǐwaste paper
101
Total compounds
39
As first character
57
As last character
4
As middle character

纸 appears in 101 compound words: 39 as the first character, 57 as the last, and 4 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 纸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

币bì
0.6076,356 co-occurrences
浆jiāng
0.5711,080 co-occurrences
报bào
0.56222,020 co-occurrences
钞chāo
0.473320 co-occurrences
贴tiē
0.444921 co-occurrences
质zhì
0.4432,440 co-occurrences
滤lǜ
0.414214 co-occurrences
厂chǎng
0.4121,176 co-occurrences
剪jiǎn
0.4091,089 co-occurrences
张zhāng
0.3953,202 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

白纸黑字bái zhǐ hēi zìHSK 3+

(written) in black and white

phrase
仿羊皮纸fǎng yáng pí zhǐHSK 5+

imitation parchment

phrase
金迷纸醉jīn mí zhǐ zuìHSK 5+

see 紙醉金迷|纸醉金迷

phrase
洛阳纸贵luòyángzhǐguì

to be all the rage for a time; to be immensely popular

phrase
石蕊试纸shí ruǐ shì zhǐ

(chemistry) litmus paper

phrase
跃然纸上yuèránzhǐshàngHSK 6+

vivid; lively

phrase
纸上谈兵zhǐshàngtánbīngHSK 6+

to engage in theoretical discussion that is worse than useless in practice; armchair strategist; idle theorizing

phrase
纸醉金迷zhǐzuìjīnmíHSK 5+

to indulge in a life of luxury and dissipation

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请把这份文件打印在A4纸上,双面打印以节约用纸。

Qǐng bǎ zhè fèn wénjiàn dǎyìn zài A4 zhǐ shang, shuāngmiàn dǎyìn yǐ jiéyuē yòngzhǐ.

Please print this document on A4 paper, double-sided to save paper.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

韩国瑜为何喊“湿纸覆面”?刘宝杰惊爆:他看到蓝营1悲惨危机

hán guó 瑜 wéi hé hǎn shī zhǐ fù miàn ? liú bǎo jié jīng bào : tā kàn dào lán yíng 1 bēi cǎn wēi jī

Why did Han Guoyu shout "wet paper covering"? Liu Baojie was shocked: He saw the tragic crisis of Blue Camp 1

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...升通信回收领200元配件金 消费再送卫生纸

. . . shēng tōng xìn huí shōu lǐng 2 0 0 yuán pèi jiàn jīn xiāo fèi zài sòng wèi shēng zhǐ

... Sheng Communication Recycling Receives 200 Yuan Accessories Gold and Consumption and Toilet Paper

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

高雄电线杆公车站牌贴纸 破损严重待改善

gāo xióng diàn xiàn gān gōng chē zhàn pái tiē zhǐ pò sǔn yán chóng dài gǎi shàn

Kaohsiung telephone pole bus stop stickers are seriously damaged and need to be improved

中国军网Feb 2026

军校成长相册丨纸短情长,家书见证学员成长

jūn jiào chéng cháng xiāng cè 丨 zhǐ duǎn qíng cháng , jiā shū jiàn zhèng xué yuán chéng cháng

Military Academy Growth Album丨Short Letters, Deep Feelings: Family Letters Document Cadets' Development

NewsFeb 2026

观察站/一纸特赦 补不了长照漏洞

guàn chá zhàn yī zhǐ tè 赦 bǔ bù le cháng zhào lòu dòng

The observatory/amnesty cannot fill the loopholes in long-term care

Tatoeba

这是份好报纸,不是吗?

Zhè shì fèn hǎo bàozhǐ, bùshìma?

This is a good newspaper, isn't it?

Tatoeba

我能不能看一下你的报纸?

Wǒ néng bù néng kàn yīxià nǐ de bàozhǐ?

Can I have a look at your newspaper?

Tatoeba

我需要写一封信。你有纸吗?

Wǒ xūyào xiě yī fēng xìn. nǐ yǒu zhǐ ma?

I have to write a letter. Do you have some paper?

Tatoeba

今天的报纸中有没有什么特殊消息呢?

Jīntiān de bàozhǐ zhōng yǒuméiyǒu shénme tèshū xiāoxi ne?

Is there any special news in today's paper?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 纟 (silk) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhǐ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 纸 (zhǐ) mean in Chinese?
纸 (zhǐ) primarily means "paper." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1019 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 纸 have?
纸 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 纸?
The radical associated with 纸 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 纸?
纸 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 氏 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟氏 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 纸?
Common words with 纸 include: 报纸 (bào zhǐ, "newspaper"); 纸条 (zhǐ tiáo, "slip of paper"); 纸巾 (zhǐ jīn, "paper towel"); 纸杯 (zhǐ bēi, "paper cup"); 纸牌 (zhǐ pái, "playing card"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 纸 (zhǐ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhǐ: 只 (classifier for birds and certain animals, one of a pair, some utensils, vessels etc), 知 (to know), 直 (Zhi (c. 2000 BC), fifth of the legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God), 指 (finger, point), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 纸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 纸 and the traditional form is 帋.

Practice writing 纸 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.