拼音
- chī (first tone, high and level)
to eat; to take (a meal, medicine); to absorb, to take in
字形拆解
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.
部首 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