qi
/t͡ʃiː/
qi is the alternative form of chi.
Meaning of chi
Noun (1)
chi (plural chis)
Noun (2)
chi (usually uncountable, plural chis)
- 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
Noun (3)
chi (usually uncountable, plural chis)
- The Chinese foot, a traditional Chinese unit of length based on the human forearm.
- Synonyms:
- Chinese foot
- The Chinese unit of length standardized in 1984 as ¹/₃ of a meter.
- The Taiwanese unit of length standardized as ¹⁰/₃₃ of a meter, identical to the Japanese shaku.
- The chek or Hong Kong foot, a unit of length standardized as 0.371475 meters.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Qi
Qi
- An ancient Chinese duchy, and later kingdom, under the Zhou dynasty
- In the earlier chapters uncouth proper names are reduced to a minimum, but the Index refers by name to specific places and persons only generally mentioned in the earlier pages. For instance, the states of Lu and Chêng on pages 22 and 29 : it is hard enough to differentiate Ts‘i, Tsin, Ts‘in, and...[1908, Edward Harper Parker, Ancient China Simplified, London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., →OCLC, page ix, xi
- Chiseled into rock in Kinmen County’s Jinhu Township (金湖) are the Chinese characters for one of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) favorite memes. Translated they read: “Remember our days at Ju” (毋忘在莒), referencing the Warring States period when the armies of the state of Qi were forced to retreat to the city...2021 May 26, Jerome Keating, “The Kinmen and Matsu challenge”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 May 2021, Editorials
- A Chinese surname.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Qi
Qi
Proper noun (3) capitalized: Qi
Qi
- A county of Hebi, Henan, China.
- Opposition to Yüeh’s regime was not limited to Ying-yang. In Ch’i County, located about 120 kilometers to the east, Red Spear resistance was even more pronounced.[…]The richest county in Honan, Ch'i had a long history of tax resistance.[1980, Elizabeth J. Perry, “The Red Spears”, in Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 164
- Three communes in Qi county, also in the heart of the plain in north-eastern Henan, have a total of 334 joint-household enterprises involving 1771 households, 6.6% of all households (Ma Renping 1981a).1985, Frank Leeming, Rural China Today, Longman, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 95
Forms of qi
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | qis |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Ch'i |
| alternative form | Chi |
Origin of qi
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 氣 /气.
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 齊 /齐 (Qí).
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 祁 (Qí).
Phrases with qi
Words that rhyme with qi
Questions about qi
- What does qi mean?
- Qi means an ancient Chinese duchy, and later kingdom, under the Zhou dynasty.
- What is qi the alternative form of?
- Qi is the alternative form of chi.
- What part of speech is qi?
- Qi is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce qi?
- Qi is pronounced /t͡ʃiː/.
Words near qi in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: qi (page history and authors); Qi (page history and authors); chi (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “qi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/qi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.