(zhī): Zoysia pungens

(zhī) is a Chinese character meaning “zoysia pungens.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2104 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, plant. Its radical form (grass) appears in many related characters such as (huā, flower), (chá, tea), (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. Zoysia pungens

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹之 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhī jiā gēChicago, USA
zhī shì(loanword) cheese
zhī masesame (seed)
zhī ma yóusesame oil
zhī ma jiàngsesame paste
dōng zhīToshiba, Japanese electronics company
zhāng bó zhīCecilia Cheung (1980-), Hong Kong actress and pop singer
zhī jiā gē dà xuéUniversity of Chicago
ā zhī tè kè rénAztec (person)
ā zhī tè kè yǔAztec language (Nahuatl)
zhī ma xiǎo shìtrivial matter
zhī lán zhī shìlit. a room with irises and orchids (idiom)
lín zhī shìNyingchi, prefecture-level city in Tibet Autonomous Region 西藏自治區|西藏自治区[Xi1 zang4 Zi4 zhi4 qu1]
zhī xīnstuffed crust (pizza)
西jiǎn le zhī ma diū le xī guāto let go of the big prize while grabbing at trifles (idiom)
36
Total compounds
58
As first character
22
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 36 compound words: 58 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 19 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.

0.65164,979 co-occurrences
jiā
0.51065,663 co-occurrences
0.50810,893 co-occurrences
qiáo
0.441450 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.404192 co-occurrences
líng
0.3982,646 co-occurrences
shēn
0.396450 co-occurrences
ráo
0.392690 co-occurrences
0.3872,706 co-occurrences
ào
0.386876 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

zhī lán yù shùHSK 7+

lit. orchids and jade trees (idiom); fig. a child with splendid future prospects

phrase
zhī lán zhī shìHSK 7+

lit. a room with irises and orchids (idiom); fig. in wealthy and pleasant company

phrase
绿zhīma lǜdòuHSK 7+

not worth mentioning; of little significance

adjective
zhīmaxiǎoshìHSK 7+

trivial matter

phrase
zǐ zhī méi yǔHSK 7+

your appearance (honorific)

phrase
zhī fén huì tànHSK 7+

lit. when one grass burns the other grass sighs (idiom); fig. to have sympathy with a like-minded person in distress

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě zhī zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "芝" had different meanings in classical Chinese.

Am730Mar 2026

麻美食市集”人气品牌晒冷 麻卷/麻汤...

zhī má měi shí shì jí rén qì pǐn pái shài lěng zhī má juǎn zhī má tāng . . .

"Sesame Food Market" popular brand sun-cold sesame rolls/sesame soup...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

《经济》ISM:2月加哥PMI升至57.7

jīng jì I S M : 2 yuè zhī jiā gē P M I shēng zhì 5 7 . 7

Economics ISM: Chicago PMI rose to 57.7 in February

WorldjournalFeb 2026

市府超额罚款 法官裁决需退款1亿给驾驶人...

zhī shì fǔ chāo é fá kuǎn fǎ guān cái jué xū tuì kuǎn 1 yì gěi jià shǐ rén . . .

The judge ruled that the driver should be refunded 100 million yuan...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

商所重启天然气期货交易 此前因技术故障短...

zhī shāng suǒ chóng qǐ tiān rán qì qī huò jiāo yì cǐ qián yīn jì shù gù zhàng duǎn . . .

CME Group resumed natural gas futures trading after a short technical failure...

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

:政府与社团合作 保障沙福祉与稳定发展

hā zhī zhī : zhèng fǔ yǔ shè tuán gě zuò bǎo zhàng shā fú 祉 yǔ wěn dìng fā zhǎn

Hajiji: The government and the community cooperate to ensure the well-being and stable development of the sand

Tatoeba

我吃了黑麻冰淇淋。

Wǒ chī le hēi zhīma bīngqílín.

I ate black sesame ice cream.

Tatoeba

他中途在洛杉矶和加哥停留。

Tā zhōngtú zài Luòshānjī hé Zhījiāgē tíngliú.

He stopped over at Los Angeles and Chicago.

Tatoeba

他们坐车去加哥。

Tāmen zuòchē qù Zhījiāgē.

They went to Chicago by car.

Tatoeba

下週六早上我要去加哥。

Xiàzhōu liù zǎoshang wǒ yào qù Zhījiāgē.

I'm leaving for Chicago next Saturday morning.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 芝 (zhī) mean in Chinese?
芝 (zhī) primarily means "zoysia pungens." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2104 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 芝 have?
芝 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 芝?
The radical associated with 芝 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 芝?
芝 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 之 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹之 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 芝?
Common words with 芝 include: 芝加哥 (zhī jiā gē, "Chicago, USA"); 芝士 (zhī shì, "(loanword) cheese"); 芝麻 (zhī ma, "sesame (seed)"); 芝麻油 (zhī ma yóu, "sesame oil"); 芝麻酱 (zhī ma jiàng, "sesame paste"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 芝 (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 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 芝 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 芝 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.