饑 meaning and stroke order
Famine; to starve, to go hungry
How to write 饑, stroke by stroke
20 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 饑
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- variant of 飢|饥[ji1]
How 饑 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Food.
飠 gives the meaning and 幾 hints at the sound.
Radical: 飠 (food), shared by 44 characters on this site.
How to remember 饑
On the left is 飠, the food side, and on the right is 幾 (jǐ), which gives the sound. Think of it as asking 幾 (how much) food is left, and the answer is almost none, so people go hungry.
饑 is a traditional form, closely tied to 飢. Both are simplified to 饥 in mainland China. It appears mostly in words about famine and hunger, such as 饑荒 (jīhuāng). Example: 那年發生了饑荒。(Nà nián fāshēng le jīhuāng.) A famine happened that year.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes read 饑 as jǐ because of the phonetic part 幾, but the character is pronounced jī in the first tone. Also do not confuse it with 機 (jī, machine), which has the wood radical 木 instead of the food radical.
Common words with 饑
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 饑荒 | jīhuāng | crop failure; famine |
Questions about 饑
How many strokes are in 饑?
饑 is written with 20 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 饑 mean?
饑 (jī) means famine; to starve, to go hungry. A common word with it is 饥荒 (jīhuāng), meaning "crop failure; famine".
How do you pronounce 饑?
饑 is pronounced jī, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 饑?
The radical of 饑 is 飠, which carries the idea of "food". Dictionaries list 饑 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 饑?
饑 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 饥, used in mainland China and Singapore.
What is the difference between 饑 and 飢?
In classical Chinese, 飢 meant personal hunger and 饑 meant famine or crop failure. In modern usage the two are often treated as variants, and both become 饥 in simplified Chinese.
How do you say 'hungry' in everyday speech?
In daily conversation people say 餓 (è), as in 我餓了 (wǒ è le), meaning I am hungry. 饑 sounds more formal or written and appears in set words like 饑荒 or 饑餓 (jī'è).