吃 chī — to eat; to take (a meal, medicine); to absorb, to take in
chī (first tone, high and level)
to eat; to take (a meal, medicine); to absorb, to take in
6 strokesRadical 口Frequency #469
Pinyin
- chī (first tone, high and level)
to eat; to take (a meal, medicine); to absorb, to take in
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿰口乞The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 口meaning partThe mouth: whatever the verb does, it does with the mouth.
- 乞sound partno entry yet乞 qǐ supplies the sound, though the modern reading has drifted well away from it.
Mnemonic
A mouth 口 with 乞 qǐ beside it for the sound. The pairing first wrote a different word, chī "to stutter" — eating was written 喫 — and 吃 was borrowed for the commoner verb and never gave it back, which is why the phonetic sits so loosely on the modern reading. Learn it in the phrases it lives in: 吃饭 to have a meal, 吃药 to take medicine, 好吃 good to eat.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.
Words containing 吃
- 吃chī (first tone, high and level)to eat
- 吃饭吃飯chī (first tone, high and level) fàn (fourth tone, falling)to have a meal
- 好吃hǎochī (third tone, dipping)tasty, delicious
- 吃惊吃驚chī (first tone, high and level) jīng (first tone, high and level)to be startled
- 大吃一惊大吃一驚dà (fourth tone, falling) chī (first tone, high and level) yī (first tone, high and level) jīng (first tone, high and level)to have a surprise (idiom); shocked or startled
- 吃亏吃虧chī (first tone, high and level) kuī (first tone, high and level)to suffer losses
- 吃力chī (first tone, high and level) lì (fourth tone, falling)to entail strenuous effort
- 吃苦chī (first tone, high and level) kǔ (third tone, dipping)to bear
- 口吃kǒu (third tone, dipping) chī (first tone, high and level)to stammer; to stutter
- 吃喝玩乐吃喝玩樂chī (first tone, high and level) hē (first tone, high and level) wán (second tone, rising) lè (fourth tone, falling)to eat, drink and be merry (idiom)
- 吃不上chī (first tone, high and level) bu (neutral tone) shàng (fourth tone, falling)unable to get anything to eat
- 小吃xiǎo (third tone, dipping) chī (first tone, high and level)snack; local delicacy
Radical 口 — other characters
- 口kǒu (third tone, dipping)mouth; an opening or entrance; measure word for members of a household
- 问問wèn (fourth tone, falling)to ask, to inquire; to ask after, to send regards; to question, to interrogate
- 名míng (second tone, rising)name; given name; reputation, famous; measure word for people counted by rank or role
- 喜xǐ (third tone, dipping)to like, to be fond of; joy, delight; a happy event, especially a wedding
- 喝hē (first tone, high and level) hè (fourth tone, falling)to drink; (hè) to shout loudly, to call out