Definitions

āi (noun) dust; dirt
Āi (proper noun) Egypt (abbr.)

Etymology phono-semantic

earth

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

The character 埃 is a phono-semantic compound with the earth radical 土 on the left and the phonetic component 矣 on the right. The earth radical indicates its connection to soil, and the structure reflects dust as pulverized earth. Its primary meaning is fine dust or airborne soil particles. In modern usage, 埃 is also frequently employed for phonetic transcription in foreign names and places, most famously as the first character in 埃及, the Chinese name for Egypt.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

及是一个国家。

Āijí shì yīgè guójiā.

Egypt is a country.

我喜欢及文化。

Wǒ xǐhuān Āijí wénhuà.

I like Egyptian culture.

及有古老的金字塔。

Āijí yǒu gǔlǎo de jīnzìtǎ.

Egypt has ancient pyramids.

房间里充满尘

Fángjiān lǐ chōngmǎn chén'āi.

The room is full of dust.

汽车驶过扬起一片尘

Qìchē shǐ guò yáng qǐ yī piàn chén'āi.

The car drove by and raised a cloud of dust.

菲尔铁塔在巴黎。

Āifēi'ěr tiětǎ zài Bālí.

The Eiffel Tower is in Paris.

博拉病毒很危险。

Āibólā bìngdú hěn wēixiǎn.

The Ebola virus is very dangerous.

微观世界中的尘也是物质。

Wēiguān shìjiè zhōng de chén'āi yě shì wùzhì.

Dust in the microscopic world is also matter.