How to Write 胝 (zhī) — Meaning “Callus”

Imagine your palm (月) pressing down (氐 looks like a downward pointing arrow) so hard that it creates a tough callus. The right part 氐 contains 氏 (clan) and a horizontal line—think of "clan of calluses" from hard labor.

The left radical 月 must be written narrow and tall, with the first stroke being a vertical and the second a horizontal hook. The right part 氐 starts with a short left-falling stroke, then a horizontal stroke, and the final stroke is a dot—common mistakes include making the left radical too wide or forgetting the dot at the bottom right.

朊 (ruǎn) means "protein" or "soft" and has the right component 元 (yuan) instead of 氐. 朋 (péng) means "friend" and is two 月 side by side. Visually, 胝 has an extra stroke in the right part (a horizontal line under 氏), while 朋 is symmetric and 朊 has a simpler right side.

胝 appears almost exclusively in medical or biological terms, such as 胼胝 (callus) and 胝体 (corpus callosum, a brain structure). It is not common in daily conversation—you might see it in health articles about foot care or in anatomy textbooks.

Common words containing 胝 include: 胼胝 (pián zhī) — callus; callosity; 胝体 (zhī tǐ) — Corpus callosum; 手胝 (shǒu zhī) — Callus on the hand..