开 (kāi): meaning and stroke order

开 (kāi) means to open (transitive or intransitive), (of ships, vehicles, troops etc) to start.

开

Simplified: 开
Traditional: 開
Pinyin: kāi

Stroke order of 开

开

kāi to open (transitive or intransitive); (of ships, vehicles, troops etc) to start
4 strokes
Traditional form: 開

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 开

kāi Traditional 開
- to open (transitive or intransitive)
- (of ships, vehicles, troops etc) to start
- to turn on; to put in operation; to operate; to run
- to boil
- to write out (a prescription, check, invoice etc)
- (directional complement) away; off
- carat (gold)
- abbr. for Kelvin, 開爾文|开尔文[Kai1 er3 wen2]
- abbr. for 開本|开本[kai1 ben3], book format

Radical and structure

开: Radical 廾 (Kangxi radical 55) · 4 strokes · 一 on top, 廾 below

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

Words with 开

分开 fēn kāi to separate; to part
开口 kāi kǒu to open one's mouth; to start to talk
开市 kāi shì (of a store, stock market etc) to open for trading; to make the first transaction of the day
开会 kāi huì to hold a meeting; to attend a meeting
开头 kāi tóu beginning; to start
打开 dǎ kāi to open; to show (a ticket)
离开 lí kāi to depart; to leave
张开 zhāng kāi to open up; to spread
推开 tuī kāi to push open (a gate etc); to push away
开除 kāi chú to expel (a member of an organization); to fire (an employee)
裂开 liè kāi to split open
开荒 kāi huāng to open up land (for agriculture)

开 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

锅里的水开了，她们下饺子。

guō lǐ de shuǐ kāi le tāmen xià jiǎozi

The water in the pot boils, and they put the dumplings in.

From the story Making dumplings HSK 2
公司的同事吴迪很爱开玩笑，他说女孩子连一个引体向上都做不了。

gōngsī de tóngshì Wú Dí hěn ài kāi wánxiào tā shuō nǚháizi lián yí gè yǐntǐ xiàngshàng dōu zuò bú le

Wu Di, a colleague at the office, loved to joke. He said girls couldn't even do a single pull-up.

From the story Pull-ups HSK 4
唐磊开了一家小奶茶店，生意一直很一般。

Táng Lěi kāi le yì jiā xiǎo nǎichádiàn shēngyi yìzhí hěn yìbān

Tang Lei ran a small milk-tea shop, and business had always been so-so.

From the story Waiting by the tree stump HSK 4

Stories using 开

Making dumplings HSK 2
Pull-ups HSK 4
Waiting by the tree stump HSK 4
Mending the fold after the sheep is lost HSK 5
Yu the Great tames the flood HSK 6
The dry floor HSK 6

开通 kāi tōng to open (a new road or railway line); to set up (a hotline); to launch (a service); to subscribe to (a members-only service)
开销 kāi xiāo to pay (expenses); expenses
开始 kāi shǐ to begin; beginning
开胃 kāi wèi to whet the appetite; appetizing
开阔 kāi kuò wide; open (spaces)

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).