HSK 3 · Adjectives

矮 ǎi “short” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 矮 means

  1. short
  2. low
  3. (of a person) short
  4. (of a wall etc) low
  5. (of rank) inferior (to)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • lower (than)

How to say 矮

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale矮ǎi3rd tone, dipping

矮 in a sentence

  1. 我妹妹比你矮。

    Wǒ mèimei bǐ nǐ ǎi.

    My younger sister is shorter than you.

    Sentence #856387 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我的哥哥比我大两岁，但他却比我矮三厘米。

    Wǒ de gēge bǐ wǒ dà liǎng suì, dàn tā què bǐ wǒ ǎi sān límǐ.

    My brother is two years older than me, but three centimetres shorter.

    Sentence #1020174 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 她太矮了，看不到围墙外面。

    Tā tài ǎi le, kàn bu dào wéiqiáng wàimiàn.

    She was too short to see over the fence.

    Sentence #816471 from Tatoeba

How 矮 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 矮 (ǎi) with each of its parts in a different colour
矮ǎishort
  • 矢arrow · shǐMeaning part
  • 委to appoint · wēiSound part

矢 hints at the meaning (arrow); 委 (wēi) hints at the sound. Compare it with ǎi.

How to write 矮

矮 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 矮

More words: Adjectives

红色hóngsè · red (colour)绿色lǜsè · green没意思méiyìsi · boring有意思yǒuyìsi · interesting安静ānjìng · quiet差chà · differ from聪明cōngming · intelligent短duǎn · short in length

FAQs

矮 (ǎi) means “short” or “low”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it ǎi: ǎi with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 矮 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 矮 from the suggestions. Typing ai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
矮 is an HSK 3 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.