嘶 (sī): hiss

Meanings

1 hiss
2 neigh (of a horse)
3 Ss! (sound of air sucked between teeth)
4 hoarse (of voice)

Characters

嘶

sī

hiss; neigh; hoarse

Examples

马儿嘶鸣着冲出了马厩。

Mǎ'er sī míng zhe chōng chū le mǎjiù.

The horse neighed and burst out of the stable.

他大喊一声，嗓子都嘶哑了。

Tā dàhǎn yī shēng, sǎngzi dōu sī yǎ le.

He shouted so hard that his voice went hoarse.

Tips

usage

嘶 covers several sound meanings: 嘶嘶 (sīsī, hissing/sizzling), 嘶鸣 (sīmíng, to neigh), and 嘶哑 (sīyǎ, hoarse/raspy). It can also be a sound of hesitation — like sucking air between teeth.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical — the indexing radical, marking 嘶 as a vocal sound. 嘶 names a hoarse rasping noise: a horse's neigh, cicada's drone, or a person's voice gone raw from shouting. Sits in the noise-mouth family with 喊 (shout), 啸 (whistle), 嚎 (howl).

phonetic

斯 sī

this; thus

Right side 斯 supplies the sound directly (sī → sī, exact match). The 'this / thus' meaning is unused here; 斯 acts purely as a sound carrier. Same phonetic appears in 撕 (sī, tear) and 厮 (sī, servant) — a tidy phonetic family clustered around the same hissing onset.