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奇

qí / jī
adjective #1,831

Meanings

  1. 1 strange; odd; peculiar
  2. 2 wonderful; marvelous; surprising
  3. 3 rare; unusual

Examples

这件事很奇怪。
Zhè jiàn shì hěn qíguài.
This matter is very strange.
他创造了一个奇迹。
Tā chuàngzào le yí gè qíjì.
He created a miracle.
好奇心害死猫。
Hàoqíxīn hài sǐ māo.
Curiosity killed the cat.

Tips

mistakes
奇 has two readings: qí (the everyday meaning - strange, wonderful, surprising) and jī, which appears almost exclusively in math/parity vocabulary like 奇数 (odd number) and 奇偶 (parity). If the word is about oddness in the numeric sense, switch to jī; otherwise it's qí.
memory
Think of 奇 as 'a big 大 possibility 可' - anything big enough to be surprising. The same phonetic 可 shows up in 河, 何, 歌.

Components

radical
大 dà
big; large
Top indexing radical 大 (a person with arms outstretched). Strict etymology says 奇 was a person standing on one leg (大 over 可 reanalysed) - an unusual stance, hence 'strange'. Modern indexing puts the char under 大 even though pedagogy splits cleanly into 大 over 可.
phonetic
可 kě
can; may; permissible
Bottom 可 supplies the sound (kě → qí, an initial drift but the rounded vowel survives). Same phonetic shows in 河 (river), 何 (what), 歌 (song) - a productive sound family. Faintly semantic: 可 (curved + mouth) gives a 'twisted, irregular' feel that fits 'odd, strange'.

Stroke Order

奇 qí