Meaning of 止
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- to stop
- to prohibit
- until
- only
How to use 止
止 is rarely used alone in everyday speech. It mostly appears in compounds like 停止 (tíngzhǐ, to stop), 禁止 (jìnzhǐ, to prohibit) and 防止 (fángzhǐ, to prevent), and on signs and in formal writing. Example: 禁止吸烟。(Jìnzhǐ xīyān.) No smoking.
止 (zhǐ) looks like a footprint planted firmly on the ground, with a short line on top like a toe and a flat line at the bottom like the ground. A foot that is planted is a foot that has stopped moving.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 止 (zhǐ) with 正 (zhèng, correct), which is 止 with an extra stroke across the top. Another common slip is reading 止 as zhī or zhì, but it takes the third tone, zhǐ.
止 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.
止 zhǐ · to stop · 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Related words
Words that share a character with 止.
| 停止 | tíngzhǐ | to stop; to halt; to cease |
| 防止 | fángzhǐ | to prevent; to guard against |
| 阻止 | zǔzhǐ | to prevent; to block |
| 禁止 | jìnzhǐ | to prohibit; to forbid |
| 不止 | bùzhǐ | incessantly; without end |
| 为止 | wéizhǐ | until; (used in combination with words like 到[dao4] or 至[zhi4] in constructs of the form 到 |
| 终止 | zhōngzhǐ | to stop; to terminate |
| 截止 | jiézhǐ | to end; to close; (electricity) cut-off |
| 制止 | zhìzhǐ | to curb; to put a stop to |
| 中止 | zhōngzhǐ | to cease; to suspend |
| 举止 | jǔzhǐ | bearing; manner |
| 止血 | zhǐxuè | to staunch (bleeding); hemostatic (drug) |
Questions about 止
What does 止 mean?
止 (zhǐ) means "to stop; to prohibit" and is used as a verb.
How do you write 止?
止 is made of 1 character: 止 (4 strokes). That is 4 strokes in total.
Is 止 an HSK word?
Yes. 止 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do I use 到……为止 to say 'until'?
Put the end point between 到 and 为止, for example 到今天为止 (dào jīntiān wéizhǐ), meaning 'up to today' or 'so far'. It marks the limit of a time period or an amount.
What does 不止 mean, and how is it different from 只?
不止 (bùzhǐ) means 'more than' or 'not only', as in 不止一次 (bùzhǐ yí cì), 'more than once'. 只 (zhǐ) means 'only', so the two are nearly opposite in meaning even though they sound alike.