HSK 6 · Verbs

刺 cì “thorn” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 刺 means

  1. thorn
  2. to prick
  3. to stab
  4. sting
  5. thrust
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to pierce

How to say 刺

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale刺cì4th tone, falling

刺 in a sentence

  1. 玫瑰有刺。

    Méiguī yǒu cì.

    Roses have thorns.

    Sentence #10322369 from Tatoeba

  2. 我的手指头有一根刺。

    Wǒ de shǒuzhǐtou yǒu yì gēn cì.

    I have a thorn in my finger.

    Sentence #2638715 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 我被鱼骨刺到了喉咙。

    Wǒ bèi yúgǔ cì dào le hóulóng.

    A fish bone pricked my throat.

    Sentence #1899644 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 刺 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 刺 (cì) with each of its parts in a different colour
刺cìthorn
  • 朿thorn · cìSound part
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāoMeaning part

刂 hints at the meaning (knife); 朿 (cì) hints at the sound. Compare it with cì.

How to write 刺

刺 8 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

刺 (cì) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 刺 (cì). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 刺

Words with 刺

讽刺fěngcì · to satirise刺激cìjī · to stimulate

More words: Common Verbs

重叠chóngdié · to overlap储存chǔcún · to store出卖chūmài · to betray处置chǔzhì · to deal with伺候cìhou · to serve凑合còuhe · to make do窜cuàn · to flee摧残cuīcán · to ruin

FAQs

刺 (cì) means “thorn” or “to prick”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it cì: cì with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 刺 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ci with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 刺 from the suggestions. Typing ci into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
刺 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.