狄 meaning and stroke order
Barbarians; a tribe from northern China; surname
How to write 狄, 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
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
Meaning of 狄
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- low ranking public official (old)
How 狄 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Animal.
犭 gives the meaning and 火 hints at the sound.
Radical: 犭 (dog), shared by 88 characters on this site.
How to remember 狄
狄 is built from the animal radical 犭 on the left and 火 (huǒ, fire) on the right. Picture outsiders on the northern frontier, seen by ancient Chinese writers as wild like animals, gathered around a campfire.
Today 狄 is mostly seen as a surname and in historical terms for northern peoples, such as 北狄 (běi dí), the northern tribes. A famous bearer of the name is the Tang dynasty official Di Renjie: 狄仁杰是唐朝的名臣。(Dí Rénjié shì Tángcháo de míngchén.) Di Renjie was a famous minister of the Tang dynasty.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 狄 with 秋 (qiū, autumn), which also has 火 on the right but uses 禾 on the left. Remember that 狄 takes the animal radical 犭, and it is read dí with a rising tone, not qiū.
狄 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 狄
How many strokes are in 狄?
狄 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 狄 mean?
狄 (dí) means barbarians; a tribe from northern China; surname.
How do you pronounce 狄?
狄 is pronounced dí, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 狄?
The radical of 狄 is 犭, which carries the idea of "dog". Dictionaries list 狄 under this radical.
Is 狄 an offensive word?
In ancient texts it was a label used by the Central Plains states for northern non-Han groups, and the animal radical reflects that old outlook. Today it appears mainly in history and as an ordinary surname, so using it as a name is not offensive.
Why does 狄 sound like dí if its phonetic part is 火 (huǒ)?
The etymology data lists 火 as the sound component, but sounds have changed a lot since the character was formed. In modern Mandarin the hint no longer matches, so you need to memorize dí directly.