胃 (wèi) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

胃

wèi[wei4]Tone 4

stomach

HSK 5

Guru Deep Dive

English · stomach

Cached lesson

1 / 1

Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:9

Writing Balance Rule: The top component (田) should be slightly compressed and balanced centrally over the bottom component (月/肉 flesh radical).

1. Meaning

stomach

appetitegizzard (in birds)

NounNeutral#anatomy#body parts#digestion

Sample Usage

我胃疼。
wǒ wèi téng.
My stomach hurts.
他的胃口很好。
tā de wèikǒu hěn hǎo.
He has a very good appetite.

2. Sound

/[weɪ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

胃

wèiwei4

`(51)

=wèi

Initial Consonant

Type: Labio-Velar Glide (Zero Initial)

Sounds like: w like in 'water'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Round lips tightly before gliding into vowel.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips rounded slightly at onset, tongue relaxed in the lower mouth.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -e vowel group

Sounds like: -ei rhymes with 'hey' or 'weight'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ay'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, identical to an emphatic English command like 'No!' or 'Down!'.

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse Tone 4 (wèi - sharp drop) with Tone 2 (wéi - rising question pitch) or Tone 3 (wěi - dipping).

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 4 is a sharp drop, like nodding firmly in agreement or commanding 'Stop!'. Move your hand straight down from high to low.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 9 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The top component (田) should be slightly compressed and balanced centrally over the bottom component (月/肉 flesh radical).

4. Components

Radical 月 · Flesh Radical (Meat, body parts, organs)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 月 (Indicates that the character refers to a body part or internal organ (flesh).)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 田 (original sound: tián / wèi phonetic influence)

A field (田) sitting on top of flesh/body (月) representing the agricultural land of the body where food is cultivated and digested—the stomach.

田 Top component, visual clue for compartments or fields
月 Bottom component, represents flesh and body organs (originally written as 肉)

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

7· Phonetic Root: 胃 (wèi)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally formed with 田 (fields/compartments) on top to denote a container or segmented space, and 肉 (meat/flesh, later simplified/merged into 月) at the bottom to signify an internal organ.

Semantic Evolution: From the physical organ holding food (stomach), it extended to mean appetite (胃口) and conceptual capacity.

The bottom component 月 is historically the 'flesh' radical (肉), which historically morphed in appearance when placed at the bottom of Chinese characters.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: イ (i)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

위

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine your stomach as a partitioned farm **field (田)** located inside your **body (月)**, digesting everything you eat.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

喂

wèito feed, helloAdd the mouth radical (口) on the left to indicate shouting 'hello' or feeding someone.

渭

wèiWei RiverAdd the water radical (氵) on the left to represent the Wei river.

猬

wèihedgehogAdd the animal radical (犭) on the left for the spiky hedgehog.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

晶(jīng)

晶 has three suns stacked together (bright), whereas 胃 has a field (田) over flesh (月).

冒(mào)

冒 has a cover (冃) on top with the eye/sun at the bottom, unlike 胃 which has 田 on top of 月.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

我今天吃太多了，觉得[___]很不舒服。

Clue: wèi

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the top component 田 with 日 or 目 when handwriting, leading to malformed characters.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the character 胃 mean, and what radical is at its base?

Production: How do you write the Chinese character for 'stomach' (wèi) using components for 'field' and 'flesh'?

胃wèistomach

Speed:

Searching YouTube for native pronunciation videos...

0 / 0