刺
cìcī HSK4

stab

刺 cì frequency
pierce verb
to prick, stab, sting, or thrust with a sharp object

护士用针头刺入手臂输液。

hù​shi yòng zhēn​tóu cì rù shǒu​bì shū​yè.

The nurse inserted the needle into the arm for an IV.

thorn noun
a sharp-pointed part of a plant or animal, or a splinter

这朵玫瑰花上有很多刺。

zhè duǒ méi​guī​huā shàng yǒu hěn​duō cì.

This rose has many thorns.

assassinate verb
to murder or kill someone, typically a prominent person, by surprise attack

他怀揣利刃潜入大营，准备去刺那敌方主帅。

tā huái chuāi lì​rèn qián​rù dà​yíng, zhǔn​bèi qù cì nà dí​fāng zhǔ​shuài.

He sneaked into the main camp with a sharp blade, intending to assassinate the enemy commander.

刺 cī
whoosh verb
(onom.) whoosh

只听刺的一声，利箭破空而过。

zhǐ tīng cī de yī shēng, lì​jiàn pò kōng ér guò.

With a whizzing sound, a sharp arrow pierced through the air.

Cross-References

Has old variant

Frequency
Character
Written text
1,058th most common 144.1 per million
Movie subtitles
1,016th most common 102.9 per million appears in 40% of films
Word
Movie subtitles
43.2 per million appears in 13% of films
Written text
36.6 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 5
HSK 3.0
Level 4
Strokes
8
Unicode
U+523A

Sources
Definitions
CC-CEDICT
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)