嗨

hāi
口 + 海
HSK 2.0Level 6

Definitions

hāi (interjection) hey; hi
hāi (adjective) high (from drugs or natural euphoria)

Etymology

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 海 represents the sound.

Semantic: 口 Phonetic: 海

About

嗨 (hāi) is a modern phonosemantic compound, with the mouth radical 口 (kǒu) marking it as a vocal interjection and the component 海 (hǎi) providing the sound without its 'ocean' meaning. It was coined as a phonetic loan for the English greetings "hi" and "hey", and later extended to colloquial Chinese as an adjective, borrowing English "high" to describe an excited, energetic state, especially at social events.

Example Sentences Hide

嗨，我是小明。

Hāi, wǒ shì Xiǎo Míng.

Hi, I am Xiaoming.

嗨，你最近好吗？

Hāi, nǐ zuìjìn hǎo ma?

Hi, how have you been recently?

嗨，大家早上好！

Hāi, dàjiā zǎoshang hǎo!

Hi, everyone, good morning!

他高兴地嗨了起来。

Tā gāoxìng de hāi le qǐlái.

He cheered happily.

我们周末去嗨皮吧！

Wǒmen zhōumò qù hāipí ba!

Let's go have fun this weekend!

嗨，别忘了带书包。

Hāi, bié wàngle dài shūbāo.

Hi, don't forget to bring your schoolbag.

听到音乐，她忍不住嗨起来。

Tīng dào yīnyuè, tā rěn bù zhù hāi qǐlái.

Hearing the music, she couldn't help but get excited.

尽管很累，但他还是嗨了一整夜。

Jǐnguǎn hěn lèi, dàn tā háishì hāi le yī zhěng yè.

Although very tired, he still partied all night.

Related Characters

Component: 口

中 和 可 后 如 同 只 知 高 问 向 或 加 合

Example Words

自嗨