思

sī
verb #3,930

Meanings

  1. 1 to think; to consider
  2. 2 thought; longing

Examples

HSK 2
Ràng wǒ zài sīkǎo yíxià.
Let me think it over a bit more.
HSK 2
Nǐ shì shénme yìsi?
What do you mean?
HSK 5
Wǒ hěn sīniàn jiāxiāng.
I miss my hometown very much.

Tips

usage
思 is used in: 意思 (meaning), 思想 (thought/ideology), 思念 (to miss someone), 思考 (to ponder), 相思 (lovesickness). The famous line '床前明月光' continues with '低头思故乡' - bowing head, thinking of home.

Components

radical
心 xīn
heart; mind
Bottom heart - the indexing radical. In classical Chinese psychology the heart is the seat of both feeling and thinking, so 思 belongs naturally to the family of mental verbs alongside 想 (think), 念 (remember), 感 (feel), 忘 (forget). The brain-above-heart picture gave the original sense to ponder: head and heart working together.
semantic
田 tián
field (here: contracted from 囟 fontanelle)
Top is graphically 田 but historically a contraction of 囟 (fontanelle, the soft spot on a babys skull) - the seat of thinking in classical physiology. The original picture was brain-and-skull above heart, the two organs producing thought together. The modern script regularized the shape into the field square 田.

Stroke Order

思 sī