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氏

2 readings · tap one to hear it

(bound form) family name; surname (as in 王氏[Wang2 shi4] "the Wang clan"); (bound form) maiden name; née (as in 李王氏[Li3 Wang2 shi4] "Mrs. Li, née Wang"); (bound form) honorific suffix added to the surname or full name of a notable person, esp. historical or scholarly figures

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Old HSK
Level 6
Strokes
4
Radical
氏 itself
Structure
Single component 独体
Traditional
氏
Common rank
#631
Unicode
U+6C0F

Sound it out + = · + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 氏 is formed

Ideographic compound (会意字)

A person bowing down

How to remember it

family name · Heisig RSH #1371

eyedropper + plow + 一 one + fishhook

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 氏

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

WordPinyinMeaning
马氏体 mǎ shì tǐ (metallurgy) martensite; martensitic
无名氏 wú míng shì anonymous person
亚氏保加 Yà shì bǎo jiā see 阿斯佩爾格爾|阿斯佩尔格尔[A1 si1 pei4 er3 ge2 er3]
马氏管 Mǎ shì guǎn Malpighian tubule system (in the insect digestive tract etc)
家乐氏 Jiā lè shì Kellogg's (US food manufacturing company)
源氏物语 Yuán shì Wù yǔ The Tale of Genji, classic Japanese novel by Murasaki Shikibu (c. 11th century)
大月氏 Dà Yuè zhī the Greater Yuezhi, a branch of the Yuezhi 月氏[Yue4 zhi1] people of central Asia during the…
立氏立克次体 lì shì lì kè cì tǐ Rickettsia rickettsii
普氏立克次体 pǔ shì lì kè cì tǐ Rickettsia prowazekii
格兰氏阴性 gé lán shì yīn xìng Gram negative (of bacteria); also written 革蘭氏陰性|革兰氏阴性
克雅氏病 kè yǎ shì bìng Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
人氏 rén shì native; person from a particular place
元氏县 Yuán shì Xiàn Yuanshi, a county in Shijiazhuang City 石家莊市|石家庄市[Shi2 jia1 zhuang1 Shi4], Hebei
金氏 Jīn shì Guinness (name) (Tw)
李斯特氏菌 Lǐ sī tè shì jūn listeria bacillus
里氏 Lǐ shì (seismology) Richter (scale)
华氏度 Huá shì dù °F (degrees Fahrenheit)
巴氏 Bā shì Pasteur
亚伯氏症 Yà bó shì zhèng Apert syndrome
罗氏 Luó shì Roche, a Swiss multinational healthcare company that focuses on pharmaceuticals and diagno…

Sound family

These characters use 氏 as their sound component — compare how they read.

CharacterPinyinMeaning
氏 sound part shì clan, family; maiden name
纸 zhǐ paper
舐 shì to lick, to lap up
哌 pài used in transliterations
祇 qí only, just, simply; one of a pair; an earth god
芪 qí celery
衹 qí only, merely, just