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世 — life; age; generation

life; age; generation; era; world; lifetime; epoch; descendant

Pinyin
shì · Shì
Strokes
5
HSK level
HSK 3
Handwriting
recognition only

This character has more than one reading — shì, Shì — and the pronunciation depends on the word it appears in. The list below gives the syllabus reading for each word.

How to write 世: 5 strokes

Each cell adds one stroke to the previous ones, with the new stroke in red. Stroke order is not decoration: it sets the proportions of the character and makes handwriting legible to a reader. The syllabus asks you to recognise this character rather than write it by hand.

世 — 5 strokes, in writing order from left to right.

Build a printable practice sheet with 世

Words with 世 in the HSK syllabus: 12

Every word in the official 2026 syllabus that contains this character, with the level it is introduced at. Learning a character pays off through these: each one combines with the characters you already know.

  1. 世界shìjièworldHSK 3
  2. 世纪shìjìcenturyHSK 4
  3. 去世qùshìto pass away; to dieHSK 5
  4. 后世hòushìlater generationsHSK 7–9
  5. 家世jiāshìfamily backgroundHSK 7–9
  6. 举世瞩目jǔshì-zhǔmùto receive worldwide attentionHSK 7–9
  7. 世代shìdàifor many generations; generation; era; ageHSK 7–9
  8. 世故shìgùthe ways of the worldHSK 7–9
  9. 世间shìjiānworld; earthHSK 7–9
  10. 世人shìrénpeople; people around the world; everyoneHSK 7–9
  11. 逝世shìshìto pass away; to dieHSK 7–9
  12. 问世wènshìto be published; to come outHSK 7–9

Glosses come from CC-CEDICT, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and are the dictionary’s first sense rather than a translation chosen for context.