xi

/zaɪ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

nonstandard/ʃiː/

xi noun: the 14th letter of Classical and Modern Greek. The 15th in Ancient and Old Greek.

Image: Mrmw, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

xi (plural xis)

The 14th letter of Classical and Modern Greek. The 15th in Ancient and Old Greek.
(particle) Either of a pair of hyperons having spin 1/2, which decay into a lambda particle and a pion.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Xi

A river in China, the western tributary of the Pearl.
- The most important inland water transport takes place along three great rivers, the Xi-jiang (West River) by Guangzhou (Canton); the Yangzi Jiang, which links Shanghai, Wuhan and Chongqing (Chungking); and the Songhua Jiang (Sungari) which passes through Ha’erbin (Harbin) in the north-east.[1979, Ronald Francis Price, Education in Modern China, Routledge & Kegan Paul, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 93
- My slow boat to China began and ended last spring in Hong Kong. For the first leg of the journey, I headed northwest into China on the Xi River, leaving Tai Kok Tsui Pierat dawn for the 10-hour Hovercraft ride from Hong Kong to Wuzhou.1986 April 12, Jeannette Belliveau, “Chinese Byways By Water: Slow Boats And Glimpses Of Everyday Life”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2025, Lifestyle

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Xi

Xi (plural Xis)

A surname from Chinese
1. Xi Jinping, current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (2012–present).
  - Vice President Xi (pronounced “Shee”), expected to succeed Hu Jintao as president from early 2013, will inherit responsibility for his nation’s far-reaching and sometimes troublesome relationship with the United States.2011 August 17, Jeff Mason, Chris Buckley, “China, U.S. seek to boost confidence as Biden visits”, in Brian Rhoads, Alex Richardson, editors, Reuters, archived from the original on 29 Jun 2023
  - Across the water, which is 110 miles wide, is Fujian province, where Xi spent 17 years climbing the political ladder before making the leap to the national stage.2022 November 5, Philip Sherwell, “We don’t think China will invade Taiwan. But if they do we’ll fight them”, in The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Nov 2022

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Xi

A county of Linfen, Shanxi, China.
- Daning County is located in the south of Luliang Mountain and west of Linfen City in Shanxi Province. Pu County and Xi County are to the east of Daning County,[...]2016, Yanyun Wei, Aiguo Zhang, “The Study on Migration and Poverty Alleviation Planning of Daning County”, in Open Journal of Social Sciences, volume 4, number 4, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC
- The 203rd Brigade was blocked by the Red 25th Army, a battalion was wiped out in Xi County, and the battalion commander and more than 200 soldiers were captured.2017, Mao Min, The Revival of China, →ISBN, page 158
Synonyms:

Xixian

Noun (2) capitalized: Xi

Xi (plural Xis)

Capital Greek letter Ξ (X)
1. (alternative) Alternative form of xi, Greek letter Ξ/ξ (X/x)
(alternative) Alternative form of xi/Ξ, ellipsis of xi baryon.

Noun (3) capitalized: XI

XI (plural XIs)

A football (soccer) team of eleven players.
- Rewind to the first day of the inaugural Premier League season in August 1992 and 177 players – or 73.1% – featuring in first XIs held English nationality. […] Not since Coventry in 1992 has a Premier League side kicked off a campaign with an all-English XI but things have reached the point where...2013 August 20, Louise Taylor, “English talent gets left behind as Premier League keeps importing”, in The Guardian
A cricket team of eleven players.

xi meaning in Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

xi in Marathi

एक्सआय

xi in Bengali

এক্সআই

xi in Malayalam

ക്സി

xi in Kannada

ಕ್ಸಿ

More languagesFewer languages

xi in Nepali: एक्सआई
xi in Arabic: كْسِي ksī
xi in Malay: xi
xi in Persian: کسی ksi

Examples of xi in a sentence

Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from April 27 to 30.
Xi said in a speech at an annual regional business forum in Boao, China.
Xi began vocally promoting the idea about a year ago.

All 12 example sentences with xi

Synonyms of xi

Xixian

Forms of xi

Noun
plural	xis
plural	Xis
plural	XIs
Proper noun
alternative form	Hsi
alternative form	Si
plural	Xis

Plural of xi: xis

Origin of xi

From Ancient Greek ξεῖ (xeî), ξῖ (xî).

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 西 (xī).

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 習／习 (Xí).

Words formed from xi

Phrases with xi

Words that rhyme with xi

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about xi

What does xi mean?: Xi means the 14th letter of Classical and Modern Greek. The 15th in Ancient and Old Greek.
What is xi in Marathi?: Xi in Marathi is एक्सआय. See Xi meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is xi?: Xi can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce xi?: Xi is pronounced /zaɪ/.
What is the plural of xi?: The plural of xi is xis.

Words near xi in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: xi (page history and authors); Xi (page history and authors); XI (page history and authors); xi (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); xi (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); xi (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); xi (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); xi (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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