雌 meaning and stroke order
Female; feminine; gentle, soft
How to write 雌, stroke by stroke
14 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 雌
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- female
- Taiwan pr. [ci1]
How 雌 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Bird.
隹 gives the meaning and 此 hints at the sound.
Radical: 隹 (short-tailed bird), shared by 32 characters on this site.
How to remember 雌
雌 combines 此 (cǐ), which gives the sound, with 隹, a bird. Picture a bird sitting right "here" (此) on her nest: the female bird.
雌 marks biological sex for animals and plants, usually in compounds like 雌性 (cíxìng) or before an animal name. It is not used for women, who are 女 (nǚ). Example: 这只猫是雌的。(Zhè zhī māo shì cí de.) This cat is female.
Common mistake: Learners often read 雌 as cǐ because of its phonetic part 此, but the standard reading is second tone cí (Taiwan uses first tone cī). Also do not confuse 隹 on the right with 住 (zhù) or 准 (zhǔn).
Common words with 雌
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 雌性 | cíxìng | female |
雌 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 雌
How many strokes are in 雌?
雌 is written with 14 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 雌 mean?
雌 (cí) means female; feminine; gentle, soft. A common word with it is 雌性 (cíxìng), meaning "female".
How do you pronounce 雌?
雌 is pronounced cí, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 雌?
The radical of 雌 is 隹, which carries the idea of "short-tailed bird". Dictionaries list 雌 under this radical.
What is the opposite of 雌?
The opposite is 雄 (xióng), male, which also uses the bird part 隹. The pair appears together in 雌雄 (cíxióng), male and female, as in 雌雄同体 (cíxióng tóngtǐ), hermaphroditic.
Can I use 雌 to describe a woman?
No. For people, use 女 (nǚ) or 女性 (nǚxìng). Using 雌 for a person sounds clinical or insulting, like calling someone a female animal.