秩

zhì
noun #94,447

Meanings

  1. 1 order
  2. 2 orderliness
  3. 3 an official's rank or salary grade
  4. 4 a period of ten years

Examples

HSK 7-9
Shèhuì xūyào zhì xù cáinéng yùnzhuǎn.
Society needs order to function.
HSK 7-9
Zhěnggè gōngsī yùnzuò jǐngrán yǒu zhì xù.
The whole company runs in an orderly way.
HSK 7-9
Yéye gāng guò le qī zhì shòuchén.
Grandpa just celebrated his seventieth birthday.

Tips

usage
Almost always seen in the compound 秩序 ('order, sequence'). The standalone 'decade' sense (one 秩 = ten years of age) survives only in formal birthday language like 七秩寿辰 ('70th birthday').

Components

radical
禾 hé
grain; standing crop
The grain radical on the left ties the character to harvested crops being stacked up in regular layers; from 'piling grain in order' came the abstract meaning of orderly arrangement and ranked salary (officials were once paid in grain).
phonetic
失 shī
to lose
Supplies the sound on the right: 失 shī shifted to zhì in this character. It contributes no meaning here, purely a phonetic marker.

Stroke Order

秩 zhì