chái
noun #10,493

Meanings

  1. 1 firewood
  2. 2 lean (meat)

Examples

Cháihuǒ
firewood
Huǒchái
match (for lighting fire)

Tips

memory
(this) + (wood) — this wood is for burning

Components

radical
tree; wood
Bottom tree radical — a pictograph of trunk, branches, and roots. Indexes in the wood family alongside forest, tree, plank. Carries the whole meaning: firewood is broken-up wood, kindling for the hearth, the most ordinary form trees take in daily life.
phonetic
this (here phonetic)
Top supplies the sound: cǐ drifted to chái through a well-attested c/ch alternation with vowel shift. The same phonetic appears in female and purple, giving a small chái/cí/zǐ family. No semantic contribution here — purely a sound marker stacked above the meaning piece.

Stroke Order

chái