shì
noun #2,998

Meanings

  1. 1 world
  2. 2 generation; era
  3. 3 lifetime

Examples

Shìjiè hěn dà.
The world is big.
Èrshíyī shìjì.
The 21st century.
Zhè shì yìshēngyíshì de shì.
This is a lifelong matter.

Tips

usage
appears in key words: 世界 (world), 世纪 (century), 一辈子/一世 (a lifetime). It's rarely used alone in modern Chinese.

Components

ideograph
shì
generation; era; world
Five-stroke unitary symbol carrying 'generation, age, world' as a single fused shape. Doesn't separate cleanly into independent components in the modern silhouette. Indexed under Kangxi #1 (yī) via the top horizontal; no further radical-element is visibly present. Historically three joined at the base — thirty years, one generation.

Filed under radical (yī, #1) by convention. is not a separate component in , so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

shì