HSK 5 · Verbs

系 xì “(university) department” in Chinese

Traditional 係

What 系 means

  1. (university) department
  2. to relate to
  3. to be connected with
  4. to connect
  5. to tie up
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to bind

How to say 系

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale系xì4th tone, falling

系 in a sentence

  1. 我是中文系的学生。

    Wǒ shì Zhōngwén xì de xuésheng.

    I’m a student in the Chinese department.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 他在大学里读的是历史系。

    Tā zài dàxué li dú de shì lìshǐ xì.

    At university he studied in the history department.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 系 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 系 (xì) with each of its parts in a different colour
系xìto connect
  • 丿slash · piě
  • 糸silk · mìMeaning part

Memory aidPicture silk threads 糸 hanging from a hand 丿: to tie, a link, a system.

How to write 系

系 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 系

Words with 系

没关系méi guānxi · it’s okay关系guānxi · relation联系liánxì · to contact系统xìtǒng · system系领带jì lǐngdài · to tie a tie体系tǐxì · system系列xìliè · series

More words: Common Verbs

闻wén · to smell握手wòshǒu · to shake hands限制xiànzhì · to restrict吸收xīshōu · to absorb系领带jì lǐngdài · to tie a tie吓xià · to frighten显得xiǎnde · to seem显示xiǎnshì · to show

FAQs

系 (xì) means “(university) department” or “to relate to”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it xì: xì with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 系 is written 係. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 系 from the suggestions. Typing xi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
系 is an HSK 5 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.