支
Tap the pinyin to hear it
to support; to sustain; to erect; to raise; branch; division; to draw money; classifier for rods such as pens and guns, for army divisions and for songs or compositions
- HSK 3.0
- Level 3
- Old HSK
- Level 4
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 支 itself
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 支
- Common rank
- #655
- Unicode
- U+652F
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 支
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 小支气管 | bronchiole | |
| 乐不可支 | overjoyed (idiom); as pleased as punch | |
| 一木难支 | lit. a single post cannot prop up a falling house (idiom); fig. one is helpless alone | |
| 支气管 | bronchial tube; bronchus | |
| 公共开支 | public expenditure | |
| 十二地支 | the 12 earthly branches 子[zi3], 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥 (used cyclically in the ca… | |
| 大月支 | variant of 大月氏[Da4 Yue4 zhi1] | |
| 支原体 | Mycoplasma (parasitic bacteria without cell wall) | |
| 空头支票 | bounced check; bad check; (idiom) empty promise | |
| 空白支票 | blank check | |
| 不支 | to be unable to endure | |
| 支子 | son of a concubine or son of the wife other than her first | |
| 支子 | support; stand; trivet; (cooking utensil) gridiron; (variant of 梔子|栀子[zhi1 zi5]) cape jasm… | |
| 饭后一支烟，赛过活神仙 | have a smoke after each meal and you will surpass the immortals (proverb) | |
| 军费开支 | military spending | |
| 地支 | the 12 earthly branches 子[zi3], 丑[chou3], 寅[yin2], 卯[mao3], 辰[chen2], 巳[si4], 午[wu3], 未[we… | |
| 支行 | subbranch of a bank | |
| 分支 | branch (of company, river etc); to branch; to diverge; to ramify; to subdivide | |
| 支出 | to spend; to pay out; expenses; expenditure | |
| 支开 | to send (sb) away; to change the subject; to open (an umbrella etc) |
Sound family
These characters use 支 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 支 sound part | to support, to sustain; to withdraw, to pay; a branch (of a bank) | |
| 技 | ability, talent; skill, technique | |
| 鼓 | drum; to beat, to strike; to rouse | |
| 翅 | wings; fins | |
| 枝 | branches, limbs; to branch off | |
| 肢 | limbs | |
| 歧 | to diverge, to fork; a branch; a side road | |
| 跂 | to creep, to crawl | |
| 吱 | to chirp; to hiss; to squeak | |
| 岐 | to diverge, to branch; the name of a mountain | |
| 豉 | fermented beans | |
| 忮 | stubborn; perverse; aggressive | |
| 庋 | cupboard, pantry | |
| 芰 | water caltrop |