How to Write 羝 (dī) — Meaning “ram”

Picture a ram (羊) standing at the bottom (氐) of a steep hill, stubbornly refusing to move. The bottom part 氐 looks like a person with a wide hat and a line underneath — imagine the ram butting that person with its horns. This helps link the shape to both "ram" and the character's sound "dī."

Write the left radical 羊 first (three horizontal strokes, then a vertical stroke through the middle, then two shorter horizontals) — do not write it as the "beautiful" 美's top part. The right side 氐 is written with a horizontal stroke, then a short left-falling stroke, a dot, then horizontal and a vertical hook — be careful not to confuse the final stroke with a solid vertical line. A common mistake is making the right side look like 氏 (shì) instead of 氐; remember 氐 has an extra horizontal line at the bottom.

羝 (ram) has the right component 氐, while 羍 (a young lamb, rare) uses 大 (big) under 羊 — so 羍 looks like a sheep with big legs. 美 (beautiful) combines 羊 with 大 but in a different layout: 羊 on top and 大 below. In meaning, 羝 is a specific male sheep (ram), 羍 is a very rare character for a lamb, and 美 is a common word for "beautiful."

羝 is very rare in daily Chinese and not in the HSK vocabulary list; it appears mainly in classical idioms or literary expressions. A famous idiom is 羝羊触藩 (dī yáng chù fān), meaning "a ram butting a fence" — describing someone who gets stuck by stubbornly trying to force an impossible solution. Another phrase, 羝乳 (dī rǔ), means "a ram giving milk" and is used to refer to an impossibility.

Common words containing 羝 include: 羝羊 (dī yáng) — ram; 羝乳 (dī rǔ) — a ram giving milk (an impossibility); 羝触 (dī chù) — to butt with horns.