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

HSK 7-9

马儿嘶鸣着冲出了马厩。

Mǎr sī míng zhe chōng chū le mǎjiù.

The horse neighed and burst out of the stable.

HSK 7-9

他大喊一声，嗓子都嘶哑了。

Tā dàhǎn yī shēng, sǎngzi dōu sīyǎ le.

He shouted so hard that his voice went hoarse.

Tips

usage

嘶 covers several sound meanings: 嘶嘶 (hissing/sizzling), 嘶鸣 (to neigh), and 嘶哑 (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 to 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.