泥 meaning and stroke order
Mud; clay; paste
How to write 泥, stroke by stroke
8 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 泥
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- mud
- clay
- paste
- pulp
- restrained
How 泥 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Water.
氵 gives the meaning and 尼 hints at the sound.
Radical: 氵 (water), shared by 467 characters on this site.
How to remember 泥
泥 is pictophonetic: the water radical 氵 on the left gives the meaning, and 尼 (ní) on the right gives the sound. Think of water mixed into the ground until it turns to ní, mud.
泥 means mud or clay, and it also means any mashed paste, like 土豆泥 (tǔdòuní) mashed potato or 枣泥 (zǎoní) date paste. It appears in everyday words such as 水泥 (shuǐní) cement and 泥土 (nítǔ) soil. Example: 下雨后路上都是泥。(Xià yǔ hòu lù shang dōu shì ní.) After the rain the road is all mud.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write 尼 alone or confuse 泥 with 呢 (ne), which has the same phonetic but uses the mouth radical 口 and is a sentence particle. If it means mud or paste, it needs the water radical 氵.
Common words with 泥
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 水泥 | shuǐní | cement | HSK 6 |
| 泥土 | nítǔ | earth; soil; mud; clay | HSK 7-9 |
| 泥潭 | nítán | quagmire | HSK 7-9 |
| 泥巴 | níba | (coll.) mud | |
| 土豆泥 | tǔdòuní | mashed potato | |
| 草泥马 | cǎonímǎ | see 肏你媽|肏你妈[cao4 ni3 ma1] (near homophone used to avoid Internet censorship); (Internet sl | |
| 泥泞 | nínìng | muddy; mud | |
| 烂泥 | lànní | mud; mire | |
| 烂醉如泥 | lànzuìrúní | (idiom) to be dead drunk; to be plastered | |
| 泥浆 | níjiāng | slurry; mud | |
| 淤泥 | yūní | silt; sludge |
泥 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 泥
How many strokes are in 泥?
泥 is written with 8 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 泥 mean?
泥 (ní) means mud; clay; paste. A common word with it is 水泥 (shuǐní), meaning "cement".
How do you pronounce 泥?
泥 is pronounced ní, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 泥?
The radical of 泥 is 氵, which carries the idea of "water". Dictionaries list 泥 under this radical.
Is 泥 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 泥 is part of the HSK 6 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What does the reading nì mean for 泥?
In the fourth tone, nì means to be restrained or stubbornly stuck to something, as in 拘泥 (jūnì) to be rigid or overly bound by rules. It is much less common than ní.
Why do people online write 草泥马 (cǎonímǎ)?
It is an internet slang term that sounds close to a vulgar insult, used as a joke and to get around censorship. It is crude, so avoid it in polite conversation.