How to Write 粞 (xī) — Meaning “broken rice”

Imagine you have a bowl of 米 (rice) and you drop a 西 (western) coin into it, breaking the grains into small pieces. The coin is round like the sound "xī," and the broken rice is exactly what 粞 means.

Write the radical 米 first — start with the dot, then left-falling stroke, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, and right-falling. Then add 西, making sure the horizontal stroke in 西 is shorter than the top of 米 to keep the character balanced. A common mistake is making the 西 part too wide, which makes the whole character look crowded.

粞 (xī) means broken rice, while 粉 (fěn) means powder or flour, and 粑 (bā) means a rice cake. Visually, 粞 has 西 on the right, 粉 has 分 (divide), and 粑 has 巴 (snake). They all use the 米 radical but refer to different rice products — broken, powdered, or pressed into a cake.

粞 is not a common character in everyday speech or HSK. It appears mainly in agricultural or food-processing contexts, such as describing 粞米 (broken rice) used for animal feed or making cheap porridge. You might also see it in terms like 糠粞 (bran and broken rice), which refers to a byproduct of rice milling.

Common words containing 粞 include: 粞米 (xī mǐ) — broken rice; 碎粞 (suì xī) — Broken bits of rice; 糠粞 (kāng xī) — Rice bran and broken rice.