Word.ws English Dictionary

chi

/kaɪ/

chi noun: the twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets. Also the clipping of chihuahua.

chi: the twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets
Image: Mrmw, Bart133, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

chi (plural chis)

  1. The twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets.

Noun (2)

IPA/t͡ʃiː/

chi (usually uncountable, plural chis)

  1. (usually) A life force in traditional Chinese philosophy, culture, medicine, etc, related (but not limited) to breath and circulation.
    • Early Taoist philosophers and alchemists regarded ch'i as a vital force inhering in the breath and bodily fluids and developed techniques to alter and control the movement of ch'i within the body; their aim was to achieve physical longevity and spiritual power.[1987, “ch'i”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, volume 3, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 186, column 3
    • He took several deep breaths, finding his chi as Butler had taught him.2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, Viking Press, page 196

Noun (3)

IPA/t͡ʃə/

chi (usually uncountable, plural chis)

  1. (usually) The Chinese foot, a traditional Chinese unit of length based on the human forearm.
    Synonyms:
    Chinese foot
  2. (Mainland-China, usually) The Chinese unit of length standardized in 1984 as ¹/₃ of a meter.
  3. (Taiwan, usually) The Taiwanese unit of length standardized as ¹⁰/₃₃ of a meter, identical to the Japanese shaku.
  4. (Hong-Kong, usually) The chek or Hong Kong foot, a unit of length standardized as 0.371475 meters.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Chi

IPA/t͡ʃiː/

Chi

  1. (dated, historical) Qi, an ancient Chinese duchy, and later kingdom, under the Zhou dynasty
  2. A Chinese surname.

Noun (4) capitalized: Chi

Chi (plural Chis)

  1. (abbreviation, clipping, informal) Clipping of Chihuahua.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Chi

IPA/ʃaɪ/

Chi

  1. (slang) Chicago
    • I arrived in Chi quite early in the morning, got a room in the Y, and went to bed with a very few dollars in my pocket.1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Chi

IPA/t͡ʃaɪ/

Chi

  1. (slang) Chichester (city in England)

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Chi

Chi (plural Chis)

  1. A male given name.

Proper noun (5) capitalized: Chi

Chi

  1. A surname from Chinese.

Proper noun (6) capitalized: CHI

CHI

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Chicago.
    • 56 Michael Jordan, CHI vs. MIA, Apr. 29, 1992.1996, Marty Strasen, Basketball Almanac, 1996-97, page 415

Also used as

chi is also the clipping of chihuahua.

chi meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

chi in Hindi

ची, चि

chi in Marathi

ची, चि

chi in Urdu

چی

chi in Bengali

চি, চী
More languagesFewer languages
chi in Telugu
చి, చీ
chi in Kannada
ಚಿ
chi in Punjabi
ਚੀ, ਚਿ
chi in Gujarati
ચી, ચિ
chi in Odia
ଚି, ଚୀ
chi in Nepali
ची, चि
chi in Arabic
خِي ḵī, تْشِي tšī, كِي kī
chi in Malay
khi
chi in Indonesian
qi
chi in Persian
خی xi, چی či
chi in Thai
ไค kai
chi in Vietnamese
khí

Examples of chi in a sentence

  • Chi stops, but her eyes continue to pierce right through me and into Karima.
  • Chi is just subphysical, but still beyond the reach of technological measurement.
  • Some pseudoscientific claims explain what non-believers cannot even observe, e.g. orgone energy, N-rays, or chi.

All 16 example sentences with chi

Synonyms of chi

Forms of chi

Noun
pluralchis
alternative formkhi
alternative formch'i
alternative formki
alternative Hanyu-Pinyinqi
alternative formchih
alternative formch'ih
pluralChis
Proper noun
alternative formCh'i
pluralChis

Plural of chi: chis

Origin of chi

From Latin chī, from Ancient Greek χεῖ (kheî).

From the Mandarin 氣／气 (qì) from the Wade–Giles romanization: chʻi⁴, from Middle Chinese 氣 (MC khj+jH), from Old Chinese 氣 (OC *kʰɯds, “breath, vapor”). Compare modern Japanese 気(き) (ki), Korean 기(氣) (gi) and Vietnamese khí (氣).

From the pinyin romanization of Mandarin 尺 (chǐ). Doublet of chek.

Words formed from chi

Phrases with chi

Words that rhyme with chi

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about chi

What does chi mean?
Chi means the twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets.
What is chi in Hindi?
Chi in Hindi is ची, चि. See Chi meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is chi?
Chi can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce chi?
Chi is pronounced /kaɪ/.
What is the plural of chi?
The plural of chi is chis.

Words near chi in the dictionary

  1. Chhuns
  2. chhurpi
  3. Chhuzagang
  4. ChHV
  5. ChHVs
  6. chi
  7. chi chi
  8. chi chi man
  9. chi chi men
  10. chi chis
  11. chi distribution

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chi (page history and authors); Chi (page history and authors); CHI (page history and authors); chi (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chi (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-chi.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chi.wav, En-au-Chi.ogg.

Cite this entry: “chi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.