稽 meaning and stroke order
To examine, to investigate
How to write 稽, stroke by stroke
15 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 稽
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) to examine; to check (against records)
- (literary) to delay; to linger
- (literary) to dispute; to argue
- to bow to the ground
How 稽 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Grain.
禾 gives the meaning and 旨 hints at the sound.
Radical: 禾 (cereal), shared by 66 characters on this site.
How to remember 稽
稽 has grain 禾 (hé) on the left, with 尤 (yóu) stacked on 旨 (zhǐ) on the right. Picture an official carefully checking each sack of grain against the records, which is the idea of examining.
稽 (jī) rarely stands alone in modern Chinese. It mostly appears in fixed words like 滑稽 (huájī, funny) and 无稽之谈 (wújīzhītán, complete nonsense), where 无稽 means having nothing to check it against. Example: 他的样子很滑稽。(Tā de yàngzi hěn huájī.) He looks really funny.
Common mistake: Learners often write the right side as just 旨 and forget the 尤 on top, or confuse 稽 with 嵇 (Jī), a surname that has 山 under the right side instead of 禾 on the left. Also remember that 滑稽 is said huájī today, even though the older reading was gǔjī.
Common words with 稽
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
稽 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 稽
How many strokes are in 稽?
稽 is written with 15 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 稽 mean?
稽 (jī) means to examine, to investigate. A common word with it is 滑稽 (huájī), meaning "comical; funny; amusing (old pr. [gu3 ji1]); huaji, a form of comedy performance popular i".
How do you pronounce 稽?
稽 is pronounced jī, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 稽?
The radical of 稽 is 禾, which carries the idea of "cereal". Dictionaries list 稽 under this radical.
Is 稽 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 稽 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Is 稽 ever pronounced qǐ?
Yes. In the reading qǐ it means to bow down to the ground, as in the formal term 稽首 (qǐshǒu). You will mostly meet it in classical texts, not in daily speech.
What does 稽 mean in 无稽之谈?
Here 稽 means to check or verify. 无稽 means there is no basis to check, so 无稽之谈 is talk with no grounds at all, or complete nonsense.