HSK 2 · Common Verbs

洗 xǐ “to wash” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 洗 means

  1. to wash
  2. to bathe
  3. to develop (photographs)
  4. to shuffle (cards etc)
  5. to erase (a recording)

How to say 洗

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale洗xǐ3rd tone, dipping

洗 in a sentence

  1. 他正在洗他的车。

    Tā zhèngzài xǐ tā de chē.

    He’s washing his car.

    Sentence #408504 from Tatoeba

  2. 你还是得洗你的衣服。

    Nǐ háishi děi xǐ nǐ de yīfu.

    You still need to wash your clothes.

    Sentence #9795198 from Tatoeba

  3. 她下午会洗自行车。

    Tā xiàwǔ huì xǐ zìxíngchē.

    She is going to wash the bike this afternoon.

    Sentence #787620 from Tatoeba

How 洗 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 洗 (xǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
洗xǐto wash; to bathe
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 先first · xiānSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 先 (xiān) hints at the sound. Compare it with xǐ.

How to write 洗

洗 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 洗

Words with 洗

洗澡xǐzǎo · bathe洗手间xǐshǒujiān · toilet洗衣机xǐyījī · washing machine

More words: Common Verbs

告诉gàosu · to tell问wèn · to ask开始kāishǐ · to begin运动yùndòng · to exercise穿chuān · to wear送sòng · to give as gift走zǒu · to walk搬bān · to move

FAQs

洗 (xǐ) means “to wash” or “to bathe”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it xǐ: xǐ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 洗 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 洗 from the suggestions. Typing xi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
洗 is an HSK 2 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.