赤 (chì) is a Chinese character meaning “red”. It is written from 土 (earth; soil) and 丿 (left-falling stroke) and 小 (small), one above the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “red”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
土 + 丿 + 小
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Kangxi radical assignment 赤部 (U+8D64) plus hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 seven-stroke modern glyph inspection: strokes 1-3 form 土, stroke 4 is a 丿 sweeping down-left, strokes 5-7 form 小
Memory aid
Ground (土) above, and under it a slanting 丿 with a small (小) fire: the earth burning small and red.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 赤道chì dàothe equator赤 = chì
- 赤字chì zìa deficit; being in the red赤 = chì
- 赤忱chì chénutter sincerity; wholehearted devotion赤 = chì
Go deeper
All readings
red
red; bare; empty; loyal and sincere
红色；也表示光着、空无所有，或忠诚坦白。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 赤道chì dàothe equator赤 = chì
- 赤字chì zìa deficit; being in the red赤 = chì
- 赤忱chì chénutter sincerity; wholehearted devotion赤 = chì
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 赤 mean?
赤 (chì) means red; bare; empty; loyal and sincere.
How do you pronounce 赤?
It is pronounced chì.
What parts is 赤 made of?
土 (earth; soil) and 丿 (left-falling stroke) and 小 (small), one above the other. The recorded source is: Kangxi radical assignment 赤部 (U+8D64) plus hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 seven-stroke modern glyph inspection: strokes 1-3 form 土, stroke 4 is a 丿 sweeping down-left, strokes 5-7 form 小. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 赤 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 赤?
赤. 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 赤?
Common ones are 赤道 and 赤字. The reading of 赤 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.