柴 meaning and stroke order
Firewood, faggots, fuel; surname
How to write 柴, stroke by stroke
10 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
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
Meaning of 柴
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- firewood
- lean (of meat)
- thin (of a person)
How 柴 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Wood.
木 gives the meaning and 此 hints at the sound.
Radical: 木 (tree), shared by 388 characters on this site.
How to remember 柴
柴 is pictophonetic: 木 (mù, wood) at the bottom gives the meaning, and 此 (cǐ) on top hints at the sound. Picture a pile of wood (木) right here (此), ready to burn as firewood.
柴 rarely stands alone in modern speech. It usually appears in words like 火柴 (huǒchái, match), 柴火 (cháihuo, firewood) and 柴油 (cháiyóu, diesel). Example: 你有火柴吗？ (Nǐ yǒu huǒchái ma?) Do you have any matches?
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the top part as 比 (bǐ) instead of 此 (cǐ). The left side of 此 is 止, not a second 匕. Also remember the tone is second tone, chái, not the fourth-tone chài.
Common words with 柴
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
柴 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 柴
How many strokes are in 柴?
柴 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 柴 mean?
柴 (chái) means firewood, faggots, fuel; surname. A common word with it is 火柴 (huǒchái), meaning "match (for lighting fire)".
How do you pronounce 柴?
柴 is pronounced chái, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 柴?
The radical of 柴 is 木, which carries the idea of "tree". Dictionaries list 柴 under this radical.
Is 柴 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 柴 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Can 柴 describe meat or a person?
Yes. Colloquially, meat that is dry and tough can be called 柴, as in 这块肉太柴了 (zhè kuài ròu tài chái le), this meat is too dry. For a very thin person, the idiom 骨瘦如柴 (gǔshòurúchái) means thin as a stick.
What does 废柴 mean?
废柴 (fèichái) comes from Cantonese slang and means a good-for-nothing or loser. It is now common online in Mandarin too, often used jokingly about oneself.