What does 四 mean in Chinese?

四 (sì) means "four" in Chinese. The new HSK exam expects you to recognise it at HSK 1.

How do you write 四?

四 is written with 5 strokes, starting from the 囗 (enclosure) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 四?

The radical of 四 is 囗 (enclosure, Kangxi radical #31). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 国, 因, 回, 园.

How many strokes does 四 have?

The Chinese character 四 has 5 strokes.

What HSK level is 四?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 四 is a character to recognise at HSK 1 and to write by hand at HSK 2 (the handwriting list HSK 1 and 2 share).

四 (sì): Meaning, Stroke Order, Radical & Examples

四

sì

four

HSK 1 character 5 strokes Radical: 囗 (enclosure)

Quick Answer

四 (sì) means "four" with 5 strokes, radical 囗 (enclosure), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 四 →Animated stroke-order for 四 →

Pronunciation

sì

Meaning

Primary: four

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

In oracle-bone script, 四 was written as four horizontal strokes (亖), a direct tally for the number four. The modern enclosed form emerged later and is usually explained as a loan from an unrelated character depicting a mouth or nostrils breathing out. Some scholars link it to a pictograph of nasal cavities.

Form evolution

Oracle bone (甲骨文) used four parallel lines. By bronze script (金文) both the tally form and a form resembling the modern 四 coexisted. Seal script (篆书) standardised the enclosed shape with 八 inside 囗. Clerical and modern standard (楷书) squared it into the current rectangular form.

How the meaning evolved

The meaning has been stable for over three thousand years: the cardinal number four. The only notable shift is cultural rather than semantic, as the pronunciation sì became associated with 死 (sǐ, death) through phonetic similarity.

Cultural note

Because 四 sounds close to 死 in Mandarin and several other Chinese languages, it is widely avoided in hospital room numbers, phone numbers, and licence plates. This tetraphobia makes 四 one of the clearest examples of sound-based taboo in Chinese culture.

Mnemonic

Legs inside a box — four sides

Decomposition

四=囗radical+儿component

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Pinyin	sì
Meanings	four
Stroke count	5 strokes
Radical	囗 (#31: enclosure)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1, write by hand at HSK 1-2
Frequency	#767 most common

Example sentences

四个人。
Sì gè rén.
Four people.
From 四 (HSK 1)
他总是丢三落四的。
Tā zǒngshì diūsānlàsì de.
He is always scatterbrained.
From 丢三落四 (HSK 7-9)
他交了些不三不四的朋友。
Tā jiāo le xiē bùsānbùsì de péngyou.
He made some dubious friends.
From 不三不四