棋 meaning and stroke order
Chess; chess-like game; a game of chess
How to write 棋, stroke by stroke
12 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 棋
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- chess
- chess-like game
- a game of chess
- chess piece
- variant of 棋[qi2]
How 棋 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Wood.
木 gives the meaning and 其 hints at the sound.
Radical: 木 (tree), shared by 388 characters on this site.
How to remember 棋
棋 is pictophonetic: 木 (mù, wood) on the left gives the meaning, since game boards and pieces were made of wood, and 其 (qí) on the right gives the sound. Picture wooden pieces lined up on a wooden board.
棋 refers to board games like chess and Go, and appears in words such as 象棋 (xiàngqí, Chinese chess), 围棋 (wéiqí, Go) and 棋盘 (qípán, chessboard). The verb for playing is 下 (xià), not 玩. Example: 我爷爷每天下棋。(Wǒ yéye měitiān xiàqí.) My grandpa plays chess every day.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 棋 (qí) with 旗 (qí, flag), which has the same sound and the same 其 part but uses 方 on the left. Remember that games use wood (木), while flags fly on poles with cloth.
Common words with 棋
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
棋 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 棋
How many strokes are in 棋?
棋 is written with 12 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 棋 mean?
棋 (qí) means chess; chess-like game; a game of chess. A common word with it is 下棋 (xiàqí), meaning "to play chess".
How do you pronounce 棋?
棋 is pronounced qí, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 棋?
The radical of 棋 is 木, which carries the idea of "tree". Dictionaries list 棋 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 棋?
The traditional form of 棋 is 棊 and 碁. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 棋 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 棋 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 棋 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why is it 下棋 and not 玩棋?
下棋 (xiàqí) is the fixed, natural way to say play a board game, because you put (下) pieces down on the board. 玩棋 sounds odd to native speakers.
What does 棋子 mean figuratively?
Besides a chess piece, 棋子 (qízǐ) can describe a person used as a pawn by others for their own purposes. For example, 他只是别人的棋子 means he is just someone else's pawn.