TraceHanzi

呎 meaning and stroke order

chǐ

Foot

7 strokesRadical 口
Strokes7
Pinyinchǐ
ToneTone 3
Frequency#4,403
Printable worksheet

How to write 呎, stroke by stroke

7 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7

Meaning of 呎

Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.

chǐthird tone (dipping)
  1. foot (unit of length equal to 0.3048 m)
  2. old form of modern 英尺[ying1 chi3]

How 呎 is built

Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character.

kǒumouth+chǐa Chinese foot

口 gives the meaning and 尺 hints at the sound.

Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.

How to remember 呎

Take the ruler unit 尺 (chǐ) and add a mouth 口 on the left. The mouth marks this as a borrowed foreign word, so 呎 is the imported English foot, while 尺 gives the sound.

呎 is an older character for the imperial foot. Mainland China now writes 英尺 (yīngchǐ) instead, but 呎 still appears in Hong Kong, especially in property listings. Example: 这个单位有五百呎。(Zhège dānwèi yǒu wǔbǎi chǐ.) This flat is 500 square feet.

Common mistake: Learners often mix up 呎 with 尺 (chǐ). 尺 alone is the traditional Chinese chi, about one third of a meter, not the English foot. Also note that 呎 is read as one syllable, chǐ, not as two syllables like yīngchǐ.

呎 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

汤tāng姆mǔ差chà不bu多duō有yǒu六liù呎chǐ高gāo。
Tom is almost six feet tall.
他tā差chà不bu多duō有yǒu六liù呎chǐ高gāo。
He is almost six feet tall.
游yóu泳yǒng池chí长cháng度dù是shì 25 呎chǐ。
The swimming pool is 25 feet long.
我wǒ差chà不bu多duō五wǔ呎chǐ十shí一yī吋cùn。
I'm almost five eleven.
我wǒ们men的de脑nǎo袋dài都dōu不bù及jí他tā的de肩jiān膀bǎng吧ba，他tā的de身shēn高gāo肯kěn定dìng不bù矮ǎi于yú六liù呎chǐ半bàn。
I don't think any of our heads would have come up to his shoulder, and I am sure that he could not have measured less than six and a half feet.

Questions about 呎

How many strokes are in 呎?

呎 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.

What does 呎 mean?

呎 (chǐ) means foot.

How do you pronounce 呎?

呎 is pronounced chǐ, in the third tone (dipping).

What is the radical of 呎?

The radical of 呎 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 呎 under this radical.

Why does 呎 have a mouth radical if it is about length?

Here 口 is the semantic part. In characters made for foreign units and loanwords it often signals a sound-borrowed word rather than anything about mouths. 尺 supplies both the sound chǐ and the link to measuring.

Should I use 呎 or 英尺 when I write?

In mainland standard Chinese, use 英尺 (yīngchǐ). 呎 is considered an old form there. In Hong Kong, 呎 is still very common in everyday writing, such as 平方呎 for square feet in housing ads.