Meaning of 拾
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- to pick up
- to collate or arrange
- ten (banker's anti-fraud numeral)
- to ascend in light steps
How to use 拾
On its own, 拾 means to pick something up from the ground, often in set phrases like 拾金不昧 (not keeping money you find). It appears most often in 收拾 (shōushi), to tidy up, which is very common in daily speech. Example: 我去收拾房间。(Wǒ qù shōushi fángjiān.) I'm going to tidy up the room.
拾 combines the hand radical 扌 with 合 (hé, to join), so picture your hand coming together around something on the ground to pick it up. The 合 part also hints at the sound, since 拾 (shí) sounds like 十 (shí, ten).
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 拾 with 恰 (qià, exactly) or 给 (gěi, to give), which share the 合 part but have a different radical on the left. Also note that in 收拾 the 拾 is usually said in the neutral tone, shōushi, not shōushí.
拾 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.
拾 shí · to pick up · 9 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 拾.
| 收拾 | shōushi | to put in order; to tidy up |
| 重拾 | chóngshí | to pick up (a theme etc); to regain (confidence) |
| 不可收拾 | bùkěshōushi | (idiom) irremediable; unmanageable; out of hand; hopeless |
| 收拾残局 | shōushicánjú | to clear up the mess; to pick up the pieces |
Questions about 拾
What does 拾 mean?
拾 (shí) means "to pick up; to collate or arrange" and is used as a verb.
How do you write 拾?
拾 is made of 1 character: 拾 (9 strokes). That is 9 strokes in total.
Is 拾 an HSK word?
Yes. 拾 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why is 拾 used to write the number ten?
On checks, receipts and bank forms, Chinese uses complex numerals that are hard to alter, and 拾 is the formal form of 十 (shí). For example, 壹拾元 means ten yuan on an invoice.
What is the difference between 拾 and 捡 (jiǎn)?
Both mean to pick up, but 捡 is the everyday spoken word, as in 捡钱 (jiǎn qián, to find money on the ground). 拾 sounds more formal or literary and mostly appears in fixed phrases and compounds like 收拾 and 重拾.