几 (jī): small table; low stand

Meanings

1 small table; low stand
2 almost; nearly

Characters

几

jī

small table; low stand

Examples

把茶杯放在几上。

Bǎ chábēi fàng zài jī shàng.

Place the teacups on the small table.

他几乎每天都去跑步。

Tā jīhū měitiān dōu qù pǎobù.

He goes running almost every day.

中奖的几率非常低。

Zhòngjiǎng de jīlǜ fēicháng dī.

The probability of winning is very low.

Tips

history

The first-tone reading carries two threads that the simplified character merged into one shape. The 'small low table' sense is the original pictograph 几 — a stand for incense, scrolls or tea. The 'almost / nearly' sense came from a separate traditional character 幾, which after script reform also collapsed into 几. Same shape today, different histories.

register

Standalone 几 as 'small table' is literary and rarely heard alone in speech; you meet it mostly in compounds like 茶几 (tea table), 案几 (long writing desk), 凭几 (armrest stand). The 'almost' sense is also bound — you'll see it in 几乎, 几近, 几率 rather than on its own.

Components

pictograph

几 jī

small table; how many (jǐ)

Self-component. 几 is itself Kangxi radical 16. Oracle and seal forms picture a low side-table or armrest with two short legs — the kind of stand on which incense, scrolls or tea were placed. The small-table sense survives in 茶几 (tea table). The very common interrogative 几 'how many' is a phonetic borrowing of the same graph and unrelated to the table picture; it came in via the simplification of 幾 into 几.

Radical

Table Kangxi #16

The 几 radical, originally a pictograph of a low armrest or stool (Shuowen: 坐所以凭也). A small but visible Kangxi class — 凡, 凯, 凳, 凭 — usually placed at the bottom of the host character. In simplified Chinese, 几 also doubles as the high-frequency word for 'how many'.