chi
chi — noun
- chisingular
- chisplural
1. the life energy that flows through every living thing, which in Chinese medicine
the life energy that flows through every living thing, which in Chinese medicine and practices like tai chi and qigong must be kept balanced for a person to stay healthy.
Naoko practices tai chi every morning to help her chi flow smoothly through her body.
collocation: chi flow / chi flows through
Kofi's acupuncture treatment is designed to restore the balance of his chi.
collocation: restore / balance chi
According to Chinese medicine, blocked chi can cause tiredness and illness.
Gabriel feels that his chi is strongest when he meditates near the ocean.
Salma learned to direct her chi through breathing exercises at her qigong class.
- qi
same concept; alternative romanisation from Mandarin, equally common in English
- life force
broader and less specifically tied to Chinese medicine
- vital energy
more formal register, used in academic or medical contexts
用法筆記
Uncountable in English — you cannot say 'a chi' or 'two chis'. Frequently appears with verbs relating to movement or balance: flow, circulate, direct, restore, block.
常見錯誤
2. in the Greek alphabet, the character that comes after phi and before psi (χ, Χ),
in the Greek alphabet, the character that comes after phi and before psi (χ, Χ), widely used as a symbol in mathematics and science.
In statistics, the chi-squared test uses the Greek letter chi as its symbol.
term: chi-squared test (χ²)
Salma wrote a small chi on the blackboard during her geometry lesson.
The Greek letter chi looks similar to the Latin letter X in its uppercase form.
Vikram used chi to represent an unknown angle in his physics equation.
During linguistics class, Henrik learned to distinguish chi from the Greek letter psi.
- χ
the Greek letter itself used in written notation
用法筆記
In mathematical contexts chi is often pronounced /kaɪ/ (rhyming with 'sky'). When writing, the lowercase χ is distinct from the Latin x — note the rounded top and descender below the baseline.