Fine Kudzu Cloth

It names fine cloth woven from kudzu fibre.

絺 is the fine grade; 綌 is the coarse counterpart. As of 2026-09-09, the earliest known written use is in 葛覃, a poem in the Book of Songs, an early Chinese poetry collection. It describes preparing kudzu fibre and making both fabrics for clothing; later classical texts connect 絺 with summer and formal dress.

Why would someone send 絺 by itself?

Alone, it reads as a literal textile term; tone needs context.

In Japanese, it also has the readings ち and ほそぬの, used for fine cloth such as linen or hemp. These are Japanese readings, not a separate Mandarin meaning.

How do I type and identify 絺?

Use the Mandarin cloth entry, then check the rendered glyph.

For the cloth sense, enter Mandarin pinyin chī (a high, level tone, with a “ch” made by drawing the tongue slightly back) in an IME. Some dictionaries also list a separate variant sense associated with 黹.

As of 2026-09-09, regional CJK fonts may draw different strokes for 絺; a missing-glyph box means the active font lacks support.