HSK 6 · Society

贼 zéi “thief” in Chinese

Traditional 賊

What 贼 means

  1. thief
  2. robber
  3. (bound form) traitor
  4. subversive
  5. (bound form) evil
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • wicked
  • sly
  • shifty
  • devious

How to say 贼

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale贼zéi2nd tone, rising

贼 in a sentence

  1. 抓贼啊！

    Zhuā zéi a!

    Stop, thief!

    Sentence #2052246 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 一个窃贼闯进了他的房子。

    Yí ge qièzéi chuǎngjìn le tā de fángzi.

    A burglar broke into his house.

    Sentence #844475 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 贼 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 贼 (zéi) with each of its parts in a different colour
贼zéithief; robber
  • 贝sea shell · bèiSound part
  • 戎arms · róngMeaning part

戎 hints at the meaning (arms); 贝 (bèi) hints at the sound. Compare it with zéi.

How to write 贼

贼 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 贼

More words: Society & Law

隐私yǐnsī · privacy仪式yíshì · ceremony原告yuángào · plaintiff元首yuánshǒu · head of state战斗zhàndòu · to fight章程zhāngchéng · regulations占领zhànlǐng · to occupy战役zhànyì · battle

FAQs

贼 (zéi) means “thief” or “robber”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zéi: zéi with a 2nd 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, 贼 is written 賊. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 贼 from the suggestions. Typing zei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
贼 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.