verb #35,113

Meanings

  1. 1 to cry loudly (of a person)
  2. 2 to crow; to chirp; to hoot (of birds and animals)

Examples

HSK 3
Jī tí shí tiān gāng liàng.
The sky had just brightened when the rooster crowed.
HSK 7-9
Yīng'ér è le jiù huì tí kū.
Babies cry when they're hungry.
HSK 7-9
Línzhōng chuánlái yīzhèn niǎo tí shēng.
A burst of birdsong came from the forest.

Tips

register
Bound form - rarely used alone. Usually appears in compounds: 啼哭 (to wail), 啼鸣 (to crow/chirp), 鸡啼, 鸟啼. Literary in tone.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Mouth radical on the left, the indexing radical for any sound coming from a throat. It groups with weep, call, sing - the radical anchors the meaning in 'noise made by mouth', here a loud cry or animal call.
phonetic
emperor
Right side supplies the sound, though dì has shifted to tí in modern reading. Don't read the 'emperor' meaning into - also appears in (listen carefully) and (hoof), all sharing this phonetic series rather than imperial imagery.

Stroke Order