妻 (qī) is a Chinese character meaning “wife”. It is written from 十 (ten) and 彐 (snout radical; a three-stroke block closed on the right) and 女 (woman; female), one above the other, and takes 8 strokes.
Build the character for “wife”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
十 + 彐 + 女
Top–bottom structure
- 十 ten · shí unknown
- 彐 snout radical; a three-stroke block closed on the right · jì unknown
- 女 woman; female · nǚ unknown
Structure from: modern component decomposition (十 + 彐 + 女) verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 medians (8 strokes: 十 = strokes 1,5; 彐 = strokes 2-4; 女 = strokes 6-8, each component's own stroke order preserved)
Memory aid
A cross-bar (十) drives down through a three-runged block (彐), and a woman (女) stands underneath holding it all up — the wife of the house.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
8 strokes
In real words
- 妻子qī ziwife妻 = qī
- 夫妻fū qīhusband and wife; married couple妻 = qī
- 娶妻qǔ qīto take a wife; (of a man) to get married妻 = qī
Go deeper
All readings
wife
wife; a man's married partner
男子的配偶。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 妻子qī ziwife妻 = qī
- 夫妻fū qīhusband and wife; married couple妻 = qī
- 娶妻qǔ qīto take a wife; (of a man) to get married妻 = qī
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 妻 mean?
妻 (qī) means wife; a man's married partner.
How do you pronounce 妻?
It is pronounced qī.
What parts is 妻 made of?
十 (ten) and 彐 (snout radical; a three-stroke block closed on the right) and 女 (woman; female), one above the other. The recorded source is: modern component decomposition (十 + 彐 + 女) verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 medians (8 strokes: 十 = strokes 1,5; 彐 = strokes 2-4; 女 = strokes 6-8, each component's own stroke order preserved). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 妻 have?
8. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 妻?
女. 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 妻?
Common ones are 妻子 and 夫妻. The reading of 妻 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.