Chinese Character Wiki
食

shí, sì

eat

Depicts a mouth (口) eating from a food vessel (皀).

Components
口 iconic component

口  Iconic component

kǒu

  

mouth

Depicts an upside-down mouth.

皀 iconic component

皀  Iconic component

jí, bī

  

one grain

Depicts a food vessel.

Evolution

食 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
食 Bronze script Spring and Autumn (771-476 BC)

Bronze script

Spring and Autumn (771-476 BC)
食 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
食 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
食 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

食  

shí

eat; meal; food; KangXi radical number 184; to eat; animal feed; eclipse

食  

sì

to feed (a person or animal)

Most common words with 食
Freq.
Word
Meaning

食物

food

食品

food

食

to eat

粮食

foodstuff

饮食

diet

Component uses

Meaning component in 11 characters (2 verified)

養 餐 饕 飧 飨 饗 饔 餍 饜 餮 飬

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*mə-lək

zyik

shí

eat

*s-m-lək-s

ziH

sì

feed (v.)


Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 48.6305% of movies

816th most common character in movies

671st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+98DF

Shuowen

“食，一米也。从皀，亼聲。或說亼皀也。”


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