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小气

xiǎo qì

Old HSK 5 HSK 3.0 level 6 2-character word Traditional 小氣

小气 (xiǎo qì) means "stingy". It is an HSK 3.0 level 6 word, and was HSK 5 in the old six-level list.

What 小气 means

1. stingy
2. miserly
3. narrow-minded
4. petty

The characters in 小气

• 小xiǎosmall; tiny; few
• 气qìgas; air; smell; weather

Example sentences

• 汤姆很小气。
  Tom is stingy.

Words starting with 小气

• 小气候xiǎo qì hòumicroclimate; fig. local situation
• 小气鬼xiǎo qì guǐmiser; penny-pincher

Sounds the same

Read xiǎo qì, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 小憩to rest for a bit; to take a breather

Where 小气 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of Confusion, Foolishness & Deception (HSK 5), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 5 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read xiǎo qì correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.