士

See also: 土 and ±

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Etymology

Also simplified from 止, as in 志.

Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Han character

士 (radical 33 士+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 十一 (JM), four-corner 4010₀, composition ⿱十一)

1. scholar, gentleman
2. soldier, non-commissioned officer
3. A certain Chinese chess (xiangqi) piece

References

• KangXi: page 242, character 38
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5638
• Dae Jaweon: page 482, character 38
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 416, character 1
• Unihan data for U+58EB

---

Cantonese

Hanzi

士 (Yale si6)

---

Hakka

Hanzi

士 (POJ sṳ, Guangdong se⁵ [Meixian], sii⁶ [Hailu], sii⁵ [Kwangtung, Siyan], su³ [Bao'an, Dongguan], Hagfa Pinyim si4)

References

• CCDICT (Chineselanguage.org)
• Academia Sinica - Hakka-English Dictionary
• Lau, Chun-fat. Hakka Pinyin Dictionary (Chinese). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1997 (Chinese IME supplement) ISBN 962-201-750-9.

---

Japanese

Kanji

士

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. gentleman
2. samurai

Readings

• On: し (shi), じ (ji)
• Kun: さむらい (samurai), つかさ (tsukasa)

Compounds

• (samurai):
  • 武士 (bushi, “samurai”)
  • 戦士 (せんし, senshi, “soldier, warrior”)
  • 騎士 (きし, kishi): knight
• (person who has a good social background):
  • 会計士 (かいけいし, kaikei-shi)
  • 博士 (hakase, “doctor (degree)”)
    • 博士論文 (hakase ronbun, “doctoral thesis”)

---

Korean

Hanja

士 (hangeul 사 (sa), revised sa, McCune-Reischauer sa)

---

Mandarin

Hanzi

士 (Pinyin shì (shi4), Wade-Giles shih⁴)

Noun

士 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin shì)

1. scholar

   博士, 院士

2. soldier

   士兵

3. commendable person, honorific title

   女士, 人士

4. specialist

   护士 (護士), 助产士 (助產士)

5. bachelor (in ancient China)
6. an official rank in ancient China

Proper noun

士 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin shì)

1. a Chinese surname

Usage notes

In modern Chinese, 士 is only used in compounds. it is found as individual character only in idiom.
士 is also used for phonetic in foreign names.

威士忌 (whiskey), 巴士 (bus)

Compounds

• 戰士
• 战士
• 爵士
• 修士
• 武士
• 將士
• 名士
• 居士

References

• "士" (in Mandarin/English), MDBG English to Chinese dictionary ( Based on CC-CEDICT ). URL accessed on 2014-02-15.

---

Middle Chinese

Han character

士 (*jrhiə̌)

---

Min Nan

Hanzi

士 (TLPA sū (su⁷), Guangdong sy⁴)

References

• Taiwan Min Nan Common Words Dictionary (臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典)
• VoiceDic (汉语方言发音字典)

---

Vietnamese

Han character

士 (sĩ, sãi, sõi, sỡi)

References

• Nom Foundation