Chinese Character Wiki
希

xī

hope

Original meaning: 

type of cloth

Composed of 爻 (cross shape) and 巾 (cloth). 爻 is here used to depict the pattern of the cloth. Originally depicted a type of cloth. The meaning later shifted to "sparse", "rare", and "hope".

Components
爻 iconic component

爻  Iconic component

yáo

  

diagrams for divination

Depicts pattern on the cloth.

巾 meaning component

巾  Meaning component

jīn

  

cloth

Evolution

希 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
希 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
希 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

希  

xī

rare; hope, expect, strive for; to hope; to admire; variant of 稀[xī]

Most common words with 希
Freq.
Word
Meaning

希望

to wish for

希

to hope

希腊

Greece

希特勒

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

有希望

hopeful

Component uses

Sound component in 6 characters (0 verified)

稀 烯 唏 浠 欷 郗

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*qʰəj

xj+j

xī

thin, sparse


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 93.1443% of movies

254th most common character in movies

508th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

7

Unicode

U+5E0C


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