Chinese character 頙

Its dictionary gloss is “correct”; it also occurs in historical names.

Mandarin pinyin spells its dictionary reading chè, roughly “chuh” with a falling pitch. As of 2026-09-12, the Ministry of Education’s dictionary of character variants (alternate written forms) says 頙 is absent from 《說文》, an early Chinese dictionary, and cites the historical dictionary 《玉篇》 for 正 (“correct”). The entry also gives a yí reading, roughly “ee” with a rising pitch, for its link to 頤.

頙 in a Chinese name: what does it mean?

In the Zhou example, it names a person in a family line.

An early example is 史頙父鼎, a ritual bronze vessel from China’s Zhou dynasty. Its inscription records an offering to ancestors and a wish for long life and descendants; 史 is an office title, and 頙 is the person’s name.

A Han-period stele—an upright stone monument with an inscription—for official 高頤 writes his name as 高頙 in one passage; a later note identifies him as 高頤. This connects the spellings in one historical name, but does not make them interchangeable everywhere.