叽 (jī) is a Chinese character meaning “(onomatopoeia) chirp, squeak — the thin high sound of a”. It is written from 口 (mouth) and 几 (small table; how many), side by side, and takes 5 strokes.
Build the character for “the thin chirping sound a small bird makes”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
口 + 几
Left–right structure
Structure from: ids-decomposition (⿰口几; 3+2 笔与 hanzi-writer-data 的 5 笔字形一致)
Memory aid
A mouth (口) on the left, opening again and again, and 几 on the right giving the sound jī — a tiny bird going "jī jī jī".
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
5 strokes
In real words
- 叽叽喳喳jī jī zhā zhāchirping and twittering; chattering noisily叽 = jī
- 叽咕jī guto mutter; to talk in a low voice叽 = jī
Go deeper
All readings
chirp; squeak
(onomatopoeia) chirp, squeak — the thin high sound of a small bird, or of someone muttering under their breath
象声词，形容小鸟的叫声，也形容小声说话的声音。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 叽叽喳喳jī jī zhā zhāchirping and twittering; chattering noisily叽 = jī
- 叽咕jī guto mutter; to talk in a low voice叽 = jī
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 叽 mean?
叽 (jī) means (onomatopoeia) chirp, squeak — the thin high sound of a small bird, or of someone muttering under their breath.
How do you pronounce 叽?
It is pronounced jī.
What parts is 叽 made of?
口 (mouth) and 几 (small table; how many), side by side. The recorded source is: ids-decomposition (⿰口几; 3+2 笔与 hanzi-writer-data 的 5 笔字形一致). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 叽 have?
5. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 叽?
口. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 叽?
Common ones are 叽叽喳喳 and 叽咕. The reading of 叽 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.