chí
noun #6,803

Meanings

  1. 1 pond; pool
  2. 2 reservoir; moat

Examples

Huāyuánlǐ yǒu yīgè xiǎo chítáng.
There is a small pond in the garden.
Yóuyǒngchí jīntiān kāifàng.
The swimming pool is open today.
Diànchí méi diàn le.
The battery is dead.

Tips

usage
池塘 (chítáng) = pond, 游泳池 (yóuyǒngchí) = swimming pool, 电池 (diànchí) = battery. The water radical shows its connection to water.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Left-side three-drop water radical, the side form of . Anchors in the standing-water family — pond, pool, basin. Same radical drives (sea), (river), (lake), (great river). specifically denotes still or contained water (a pond) versus the flowing .
phonetic
also; (classical particle)
Right side supplies the sound (yě → chí, an initial drift but commonly seen in this phonetic family). itself originally pictured a basin/snake — interestingly faint semantic echo for 'pond'. Same phonetic in (dì, ground), (tā, he), (tā, she), (chí, relax).

Stroke Order

chí