衣 (yī) · clothes; garment; clothing

Meanings

1 clothes; garment; clothing
2 coating; covering

Characters

衣

yī

clothes; upper garment

Examples

HSK 1

她买了一件上衣。

Tā mǎi le yí jiàn shàngyī.

She bought a top.

HSK 2

多穿点衣服，外面冷。

Duō chuān diǎn yīfu, wàimiàn lěng.

Wear more clothes, it's cold outside.

HSK 7-9

糖衣炮弹。

Tángyī pàodàn.

A sugar-coated bullet.

Tips

usage

衣 builds many clothing words: 衣服 (clothes), 上衣 (top), 大衣 (overcoat), 毛衣 (sweater), 雨衣 (raincoat). As a radical it takes the left-side form 衤 in 衫, 衬, 裙, 裤.

register

There is a verb reading yì meaning 'to wear / to put on', as in the classical line 解衣衣我 ('took off his robe and put it on me'). It is literary; everyday use is the noun yī.

Components

pictograph

衣 yī

clothes; upper garment

Pictograph of an upper garment seen from the front: the top stroke is the collar, and the spreading lower strokes are two opposing lapels crossing over the chest. Oracle-bone forms show clearer twin-flap symmetry. 衣 is Kangxi radical 145; its compound-position form 衤 fronts 衫, 衬, 裙, 裤.

Radical

Clothing Kangxi #145

The clothing radical. Originally a pictograph of an upper garment: collar at top, two opposing lapels below. Highly productive, indexing nearly all garment, sewing, and fabric-action characters: 袖, 裙, 裤, 衫, 袍, 被, 裂, 袭. In compounds it usually appears as the left-side variant 衤; the standalone 衣 still appears as a top or bottom component.

Forms

衣 yī

Default 22 characters

衤 yīzìpáng

Left 37 characters