HSK 3.0 Level 3 · People

海 hǎi “sea” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 海 means

  1. sea
  2. ocean
  3. great number of people or things
  4. (dialect) numerous

Measure word 个 gè or 片 piàn · 一个海 yí ge hǎi

How to say 海

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale海hǎi3rd tone, dipping

海 in a sentence

  1. 我小时候经常在海里游泳。

    Wǒ xiǎoshíhou jīngcháng zài hǎi lǐ yóuyǒng.

    I often swam in the sea when I was little.

    Sentence #1651504 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我的房子在海边。

    Wǒ de fángzi zài hǎibiān.

    My house is by the sea.

    Sentence #1752659 from Tatoeba

  3. 海非常宽。

    Hǎi fēicháng kuān.

    The sea is very wide.

    Sentence #782693 from Tatoeba

How 海 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 海 (hǎi) with each of its parts in a different colour
海hǎiocean
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 每each · měiSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 每 (měi) hints at the sound. Compare it with hǎi.

How to write 海

海 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 海

Words with 海

海洋hǎiyáng · ocean海鲜hǎixiān · seafood海关hǎiguān · customs (i.e. border crossing inspection)海拔hǎibá · height above sea level海滨hǎibīn · seaside沿海yánhǎi · coastal

More words: People & Places

有人yǒurén · someone人们rénmen · people面前miànqián · in front of身边shēnbiān · at one’s side市shì · city

FAQs

海 (hǎi) means “sea” or “ocean”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it hǎi: hǎi with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 海 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 个 (gè) or 片 (piàn). For example, one sea is 一个海 (yí ge hǎi).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 海 from the suggestions. Typing hai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
海 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 3 word list. It is not on the older 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.