齐 (qí) · neat; even

Meanings

1 neat; even
2 together; in unison
3 complete; all present

Characters

齐

qí

neat; even; together; complete

Examples

HSK 1

人到齐了吗？

Rén dào qí le ma?

Is everyone here?

HSK 3

他们齐声说“好”。

Tāmen qíshēng shuō " hǎo ".

They said 'OK' in unison.

HSK 4

请大家排齐。

Qǐng dàjiā pái qí.

Please line up evenly, everyone.

Tips

usage

整齐 = neat/tidy. 到齐 = everyone has arrived. 齐全 = complete/all available.

Components

ideograph

齐 qí

neat; uniform; complete

Simplified from 齊 in the 1956 reform - the traditional form pictured three grain heads ripening at the same height, the canonical image of 'even, level, all together'. Modern 齐 keeps that three-spike silhouette in stylized cursive, but is no longer analyzable into independent components. Itself a Kangxi radical (#210), though barely productive in modern Chinese.

Radical

Even Kangxi #210

A pictograph of grain heads ripening at the same height. The seed-meaning is 'level / even / all together'. As an indexing radical it is barely productive; almost no modern compounds depend on 齐 as the radical. The state of Qi (齐国) and the meaning 'in unison' both extend from the original image of evenly grown crops.