HSK 6 · Adjectives

零星 língxīng “scattered” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 零星 means

  1. scattered
  2. sporadic
  3. odd
  4. fragmentary
  5. piecemeal
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • in bits and pieces

How to say 零星

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale零líng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale星xīng1st tone, high and level

零星 in a sentence

  1. 天空中零星地飘着几片雪花。

    Tiānkōng zhōng língxīng de piāo zhe jǐ piàn xuěhuā.

    A few odd snowflakes were drifting in the sky.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 商店里只剩下零星的几个顾客。

    Shāngdiàn lǐ zhǐ shèngxià língxīng de jǐ ge gùkè.

    There were only a few customers left in the shop.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 零星 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 零 (líng) with each of its parts in a different colour
零língzero
  • 雨rain · yǔMeaning part
  • 令command · língSound part

雨 hints at the meaning (rain); 令 (líng) hints at the sound. Compare it with líng.

The character 星 (xīng) with each of its parts in a different colour
星xīngstar
  • 日sun · rìMeaning part
  • 生life · shēngSound part

日 hints at the meaning (sun); 生 (shēng) hints at the sound. Compare it with xīng.

Memory aidSun 日, here a bright star, with 生 (shēng) for the sound: a star.

How to write 零星

零 13 strokes · 星 9 strokes

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

零星 (língxīng) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 零星 (língxīng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 零星

Words with 零

零líng · zero零钱língqián · change (of money)零食língshí · between-meal nibbles零件língjiàn · part

Words with 星

星期xīngqī · week星期日Xīngqīrì · Sunday星期天Xīngqītiān · Sunday明星míngxīng · star卫星wèixīng · satellite

More words: Adjectives

辽阔liáokuò · vast利害lìhai · terrible伶俐línglì · clever灵敏língmǐn · sensitive吝啬lìnsè · stingy立体lìtǐ · three-dimensional理直气壮lǐzhíqìzhuàng · bold and confident (being in the right)隆重lóngzhòng · grand

FAQs

零星 (língxīng) means “scattered” or “sporadic”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it língxīng: líng with a 2nd tone, then xīng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 零星 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type lingxing with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 零星 from the suggestions. Typing lingxing into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
零星 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.