HSK 6 · Nature

化石 huàshí “fossil” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 化石 means

  1. fossil

How to say 化石

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale化huà4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale石shí2nd tone, rising

化石 in a sentence

  1. 在我手里的是一个贝壳化石。

    Zài wǒ shǒulǐ de shì yí ge bèiké huàshí.

    What I’m holding is a fossilised seashell.

    Sentence #775393 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 褐煤是一种化石燃料。

    Hèméi shì yì zhǒng huàshí ránliào.

    Lignite (brown coal) is a fossil fuel.

    Sentence #2028045 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 化石 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 化 (huà) with each of its parts in a different colour
化huàto make into
  • 亻person form of 人 · rén
  • 匕spoon · bǐ

Memory aidA person 亻 next to a person turned upside down 匕: to change, to transform.

The character 石 (shí) with each of its parts in a different colour
石shírock
  • 厂cliff · hǎn
  • 口mouth · kǒu

How to write 化石

化 4 strokes · 石 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 化石

Words with 化

Words with 石

More words: Nature & Environment

FAQs

化石 (huàshí) means “fossil”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it huàshí: huà with a 4th tone, then shí with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 化石 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type huashi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 化石 from the suggestions. Typing huashi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
化石 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.