裔 meaning and stroke order
Progeny, descendants
How to write 裔, stroke by stroke
13 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 裔
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) descendants
- (bound form) of ... ancestry (as in 華裔|华裔[Hua2 yi4] "of Chinese descent")
- (literary) distant lands
- (literary) fringe; periphery
How 裔 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Bright.
冏 gives the meaning and 衣 hints at the sound.
Radical: 衣 (cloth), shared by 33 characters on this site.
How to remember 裔
Picture the robe 衣 (yī) opened up with a window-like 冏 tucked inside its folds. The 衣 part also hints at the sound yì, and you can think of descendants as the long hem of the family robe, trailing far from the ancestors at the collar.
裔 almost never stands alone in modern Chinese. It appears in words like 后裔 (hòuyì) and 华裔 (huáyì), and in patterns like 非裔 (fēiyì, of African descent). Example: 他是华裔美国人。(Tā shì huáyì Měiguó rén.) He is a Chinese American.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 裔 with 衰 (shuāi, decline) and 哀 (āi, sorrow), which also split 衣 around a middle part. Also keep the fourth tone: yì, not the first tone of 衣 (yī).
Common words with 裔
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
裔 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 裔
How many strokes are in 裔?
裔 is written with 13 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 裔 mean?
裔 (yì) means progeny, descendants. A common word with it is 后裔 (hòuyì), meaning "descendant".
How do you pronounce 裔?
裔 is pronounced yì, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 裔?
The radical of 裔 is 衣, which carries the idea of "cloth". Dictionaries list 裔 under this radical.
Is 裔 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 裔 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 后裔 and 后代?
后代 (hòudài) is the everyday word for offspring or later generations. 后裔 (hòuyì) is more formal and usually points to distant descendants of a famous person, clan, or people, such as 孔子的后裔 (descendants of Confucius).
Is 华裔 the same as 华人?
Not quite. 华人 (huárén) broadly means ethnic Chinese people anywhere. 华裔 (huáyì) usually stresses Chinese ancestry in someone who holds another country's citizenship, as in 华裔加拿大人 (Chinese Canadian).