Chinese word

火柴

Pronunciation

Pinyinhuǒ chái

Meaning

  • nounmatch

Example

请借我一根火柴。qǐng jiè wǒ yì gēn huǒ chái

Please lend me one match.

Illustration for 火柴 (match)

More examples

风把点着的火柴吹灭了。fēng bǎ diǎn zháo de huǒ chái chuī miè le

The wind blew out the lit match.

Core concept

A slender ignition tool that turns a quick scrape into a small flame.

Common phrases

  • 点燃火柴diǎn rán huǒ chái

    light a match

  • 用火柴点火yòng huǒ chái dián huǒ

    light a fire with a match

  • 一根火柴yì gēn huǒ chái

    one match

Similar words

打火机dá huǒ jī: A portable fire-lighting device that burns its own fuel and can produce a flame again and again.

Definition in Chinese

一种用来点火的短小棒子，通常由木或纸制成，棒端涂有易燃药剂，摩擦后可产生火焰。yì zhǒng yòng lái dián huǒ de duán xiǎo bàng zi tōng cháng yóu mù huò zhǐ zhì chéng bàng duān tú yǒu yì rán yào jì mó cā hòu kě chǎn shēng huǒ yàn

Word origin

The compound 火柴 (huǒchái, "match") joins 火 (huǒ, "fire") with 柴 (chái, "firewood"), presenting the object as a small means of producing fire.

Usage tips

  • When counting this object, Chinese commonly uses 根 (gēn, "classifier for long slender objects"), which matches its stick-like shape and makes quantity phrases more natural.

Other meanings

  • matchsticknoun

Related words

  • 火柴盒huǒ chái hématchboxnoun
  • 火柴厂huǒ chái chǎngmatch factorynoun

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