Meaning of 七
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- seven
- 7
How to use 七
七 is the everyday number seven, used for counting, dates, prices and phone numbers. It also appears with 八 (bā) in idioms that mean messy or disorderly. Example: 我七点起床。(Wǒ qī diǎn qǐchuáng.) I get up at seven o'clock.
七 (qī) looks like an upside-down 7 with a hooked tail, or a cross whose bottom stroke bends to the right. Picture someone slashing a 7 into the ground and the tail curling up.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 七 with 匕 (bǐ, spoon) or 九 (jiǔ, nine). In 七 the horizontal stroke crosses the vertical one, and the vertical stroke then bends right at the bottom.
七 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
七 qī · seven · 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
Related words
Words that share a character with 七.
Questions about 七
What does 七 mean?
七 (qī) means "seven; 7" and is used as a numeral.
How do you write 七?
七 is made of 1 character: 七 (2 strokes). That is 2 strokes in total.
Is 七 an HSK word?
Yes. 七 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Does the tone of 七 ever change?
In standard Mandarin 七 is normally said in the first tone, qī. Some older speakers and textbooks change it to second tone before a fourth-tone syllable, as in 七夜 (qí yè), but most people today keep qī.
Why do idioms like 乱七八糟 use 七 and 八 together?
Pairing 七 and 八 in a set phrase gives a sense of many scattered things or lots of people at once. Examples are 乱七八糟 (luànqībāzāo, a mess) and 七嘴八舌 (qīzuǐ-bāshé, everyone talking at once). The numbers here do not mean an exact count.