乙
2 readings · tap one to hear it
second of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干[shi2 tian1 gan1]; second in order; letter "B" or Roman "II" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc; second party (in legal contract, usually 乙方[yi3 fang1], as opposed to 甲方[jia3 fang1]); ethyl; bent; winding; radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 5); ancient Chinese compass point: 105°
- HSK 3.0
- Level 5
- Old HSK
- Level 5
- Strokes
- 1
- Radical
- 乙 itself
- Structure
- Single component 独体
- Traditional
- 乙
- Common rank
- #1,188
- Unicode
- U+4E59
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 乙 is formed
Pictograph (象形字)
A swallow
How to remember it
second · Heisig RSH #95
— as a component also called: hook, fishhook
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 乙
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 乙太网路 | (Tw) Ethernet | |
| 乙女心 | Sedum pachyphyllum (a succulent plant with red-tipped leaves); jelly bean plant | |
| 乙种射线 | beta ray (electron stream from radioactive decay) | |
| 乙酸基 | acetyl radical CH3COO- | |
| 合四乙尺工 | names of the five notes of the Chinese pentatonic scale, corresponding roughly to do, re, … | |
| 乙酸根 | acetyl radical CH3COO- | |
| 乙方 | party B (in a contract) (cf. 甲方[jia3 fang1], party A) | |
| 乙流 | type B influenza (abbr. for 乙型流感[yi3 xing2 liu2 gan3]) | |
| 乙基 | ethyl group (chemistry) | |
| 乙女 | (slang) maiden; young lady (orthographic borrowing from Japanese 乙女 "otome", used esp. to … | |
| 乙型脑炎 | Japanese encephalitis, aka epidemic encephalitis B | |
| 乙太 | variant of 以太[yi3 tai4] | |
| 乙酸 | acetic acid (CH3COOH); ethanoic acid | |
| 乙氧基 | ethoxy (chemistry) | |
| 乙种粒子 | beta particle (electron, esp. high speed electron emitted by radioactive nucleus) | |
| 乙状结肠 | sigmoid colon (anatomy); bent colon, linking the descending colon to the rectum | |
| 乙游 | otome game – a romance simulation game targeted at women, typically featuring female prota… | |
| 乙酸盐 | acetate CH3COO- | |
| 乙脑 | Japanese encephalitis (abbr. for 乙型腦炎|乙型脑炎[yi3 xing2 nao3 yan2]) | |
| 太乙金华宗旨 | The Secret of the Golden Flower, a classic of Chinese Taoism published in the late 17th ce… |
Sound family
These characters use 乙 as their sound component — compare how they read.