Meaning of 海
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- ocean
- sea
- great number of people or things
- (dialect) numerous
Measure word: 個|个,片
- surname Hai
How to use 海
海 means sea or ocean and appears in many common words like 海边 (hǎi biān, seaside), 海鲜 (hǎixiān, seafood) and 海关 (hǎiguān, customs). On its own it is often said as 大海 (dàhǎi) in speech. Example: 我们去海边玩吧。(Wǒmen qù hǎi biān wán ba.) Let's go play at the beach.
海 has the water radical 氵 on the left and 每 (měi, every) on the right. Picture water flowing in from every direction until it becomes the sea.
Common mistake: Learners often write the right side as 母 (mǔ, mother) and forget the extra stroke on top that makes it 每. Also keep the third tone hǎi, not the fourth tone of 害 (hài, harm).
海 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.
海 hǎi · ocean · 10 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 海.
Questions about 海
What does 海 mean?
海 (hǎi) means "ocean; sea" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 海?
海 is made of 1 character: 海 (10 strokes). That is 10 strokes in total.
Is 海 an HSK word?
Yes. 海 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 海 and 洋?
海 usually means a sea, closer to land, while 洋 (yáng) means a large open ocean like 太平洋 (Tàipíngyáng, Pacific Ocean). Together, 海洋 (hǎiyáng) is a general word for oceans.
Can 海 mean a large amount of something?
Yes. It can describe a huge number of people or things, as in 人山人海 (rén shān rén hǎi, huge crowds). In some dialects it also means numerous or a lot.