(zhī): fat, rouge (cosmetics), resin

(zhī) is a Chinese character meaning “fat.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2155 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, flesh. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. fat
  2. rouge (cosmetics)
  3. resin

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼旨 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
nounzhī fángfat (in the body, in a plant, or in food)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yóu zhīgrease
tuō zhīto remove fat
shù zhīresin
zhī fáng suānfatty acid
yān zhīrouge
lín zhīphospholipid
yìng zhī suānstearic acid
huán yǎng shù zhīepoxy resin (chemistry)
xuè zhīblood lipid
zhī fěncosmetics
tú zhī mǒ fěn(idiom) to put on makeup
xiāng zhībalsam
pí zhī xiànsebaceous glands
zhī fěn qìfeminine quality
mín zhī mín gāolit. the fat and wealth of the people (idiom)
62
Total compounds
19
As first character
48
As last character
32
As middle character

appears in 62 compound words: 19 as the first character, 48 as the last, and 32 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.

fáng
0.88132,250 co-occurrences
shù
0.5457,686 co-occurrences
suān
0.5389,300 co-occurrences
yóu
0.53111,688 co-occurrences
bǎo
0.490894 co-occurrences
chún
0.4681,536 co-occurrences
yǎng
0.4663,276 co-occurrences
dàn
0.4543,246 co-occurrences
gān
0.4441,012 co-occurrences
róng
0.4431,860 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

bǎohé zhīfángHSK 6+

saturated fat

noun
mínzhīmíngāoHSK 6+

wealth gathered from the people by a government

noun
tú zhī mǒ fěnHSK 7+

(idiom) to put on makeup; (idiom) to prettify

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le zhī zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "脂" in the dictionary.

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖食物等于健康食物吗?高无糖饼干热量依然高吗

wú táng shí wù děng yú jiàn kāng shí wù ma ? gāo zhī wú táng bǐng gān rè liàng yī rán gāo ma

Is sugar free food equal healthy food? Are high-fat sugar-free biscuits still high in calories?

LtnFeb 2026

健康网》反式肪0不代表安心 医:微量仍能累积

jiàn kāng wǎng fǎn shì zhī fáng 0 bù dài biǎo ān xīn yī : wēi liàng réng néng lěi jī

Health Network》Trans fat 0 does not mean peace of mind Doctor: trace amounts can still accumulate

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

吃饭时一个小改变,肪肝就有可能好转!

chī fàn shí yī gè xiǎo gǎi biàn , zhī fáng gān jiù yǒu kě néng hǎo zhuǎn !

A small change when eating may improve fatty liver!

BastillepostFeb 2026

肪肝不是胖人专利 三类高危族群与改善关键

zhī fáng gān bù shì pàng rén zhuān lì sān lèi gāo wēi zú qún yǔ gǎi shàn guān jiàn

Fatty liver is not the patent of fat people, three types of high-risk groups and the key to improvement

百度新闻Feb 2026

南京江宁春节再传佳讯!全球首款轻量化肝脏肪定量检..

nán jīng jiāng nìng chūn jié zài chuán jiā xùn ! quán qiú shǒu kuǎn qīng liàng huà gān zāng zhī fáng dìng liàng jiǎn . .

Nanjing Jiangning Spring Festival good news again! The world's first lightweight liver fat quantitative test:

Tatoeba

切除这块肉的肪。

Qiēchú zhè kuài ròu de zhīfáng.

Trim the fat off the meat.

Tatoeba

汤姆的体率是7%。

Tāngmǔ de tǐzhīlǜ shì qī pā.

Tom has 7% body fat.

Tatoeba

松木是一种富含树的木材。

Sōngmù shì yīzhǒng fù hán shùzhī de mùcái.

Pine is a resinous wood.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 脂 (zhī) mean in Chinese?
脂 (zhī) primarily means "fat." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2155 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 脂 and 稽?
脂 (zhī) and 稽 (jī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 禾 (same 旨 component).
How many strokes does 脂 have?
脂 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 脂?
The radical associated with 脂 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 脂?
脂 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 旨 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼旨 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 脂?
Common words with 脂 include: 脂肪 (zhī fáng, "fat (in the body, in a plant, or in food)"); 油脂 (yóu zhī, "grease"); 脱脂 (tuō zhī, "to remove fat"); 树脂 (shù zhī, "resin"); 脂肪酸 (zhī fáng suān, "fatty acid"). There are over 62 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 脂 (zhī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhī: 支 (to support), 汁 (juice), 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), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 脂 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 脂 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.