Chinese word

蛇

Pronunciation

Pinyinshé

Meaning

  • nounsnake

Example

她在路上看到一条蛇。tā zài lù shàng kàn dào yì tiáo shé

She saw a snake on the road.

Illustration for 蛇 (snake)

More examples

公园工作人员发现了一条毒蛇，立即联系了动物保护部门。gōng yuán gōng zuò rén yuán fā xiàn le yì tiáo dú shé lì jí lián xì le dòng wù bǎo hù bù mén

Park staff spotted a venomous snake and immediately contacted the animal protection department.

Core concept

A long, limbless, scaly animal that moves by curving its body across land or through water.

Common phrases

  • 发现蛇fā xiàn shé

    spot a snake

  • 毒蛇dú shé

    poisonous snake

  • 赶走蛇gán zǒu shé

    drive off a snake

Similar words

爬行动物pá xíng dòng wù: A group of animals with scaly skin that move by crawling.

Definition in Chinese

一种身体细长、无足、覆盖鳞片的爬行动物，多数生活于地面或水边，有些种类具毒性。yì zhǒng shēn tǐ xì cháng wú zú fù gài lín piàn de pá xíng dòng wù duō shù shēng huó yú dì miàn huò shuǐ biān yǒu xiē zhǒng lèi jù dú xìng

Word origin

The character 蛇 (shé, "snake") combines 虫 (chóng, "insect") for the creature category with 它 (tā, "it") as the historical sound component.

Usage tips

  • Mandarin commonly uses 条 (tiáo, "classifier for long, flexible things") when counting snakes, unlike English, which normally uses no separate counting word.

Related words

  • 蛇类shé lèisnake speciesnoun
  • 蛇群shé qúnsnake groupnoun

Word lists with this word