noun #10,414

Measure Word

zhī

Meanings

  1. 1 flute

Characters

Examples

Tā chuī dí chuī de hěn hǎo.
He plays the flute very well.
Yuǎnchù chuánlái le dí shēng.
The sound of a flute came from the distance.

Tips

usage
on its own usually refers to the Chinese bamboo flute (). For a Western flute, say 长笛. The whistle/referee whistle is or just 哨子.

Components

radical
zhú
bamboo (top radical of 竹)
Top bamboo radical, the compressed cap form of — two short bamboo-leaf clusters side by side. Indexes in the bamboo-craft family alongside brush, laugh, basket. A flute is a hollow bamboo tube with finger-holes drilled along it — the radical names the material.
phonetic
yóu
from; cause (here phonetic)
Bottom supplies the sound: yóu shifted to dí via an older reading preserved in this character. The graph shows a sprout emerging from a field, but the imagery doesn't carry over — borrowed purely as a sound marker. Same family appears in oil and to pull out.

Stroke Order