HSK 6 · Adjectives

吃力 chīlì “strenuous” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 吃力 means

  1. strenuous
  2. requiring great effort
  3. to entail strenuous effort
  4. to toil at a task
  5. laborious
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • strain

How to say 吃力

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale吃chī1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale力lì4th tone, falling

吃力 in a sentence

  1. 汤姆吃力地去碰脚趾。

    Tāngmǔ chīlì de qù pèng jiǎozhǐ.

    Tom struggled to touch his toes.

    Sentence #13826474 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 吃力 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 吃 (chī) with each of its parts in a different colour
吃chīto eat; to consume
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 乞to beg · qǐSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 乞 (qǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with chī.

The character 力 (lì) drawn as one shape
力lìpower

力 is a single shape of 2 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidThought to show an old plough, and pulling it took strength: strength, power.

How to write 吃力

吃 6 strokes · 力 2 strokes

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

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

Words related to 吃力

Words with 吃

吃chī · to eat好吃hǎochī · delicious小吃xiǎochī · snack吃惊chījīng · to be startled吃亏chīkuī · to lose out吃苦chīkǔ · to endure hardship

Words with 力

努力nǔlì · to work hard力气lìqi · strength能力nénglì · capability压力yālì · pressure巧克力qiǎokèlì · chocolate (loanword)精力jīnglì · energy尽力jìnlì · to strive one’s hardest权力quánlì · power力量lìliang · power魅力mèilì · charm

More words: Adjectives

沉着chénzhuó · calm and collected迟钝chídùn · slow-witted迟缓chíhuǎn · slow持久chíjiǔ · lasting崇高chónggāo · lofty充沛chōngpèi · abundant充实chōngshí · rich充足chōngzú · sufficient

FAQs

吃力 (chīlì) means “strenuous” or “requiring great effort”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it chīlì: chī with a 1st tone, then lì with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 吃力 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chili with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 吃力 from the suggestions. Typing chili into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
吃力 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.