body; health
HSK level
身体 is written with 14 strokes (身: 7, 体: 7). The animation replays automatically.
身体 (shēntǐ) means both 'body' and 'health' — two senses English splits into separate words but Chinese fuses into one.
Concretely it is the physical body (身体很高 'tall body'), but in everyday conversation it more often means general health: 你身体好吗? is not 'is your body good?' but 'how is your health?' / 'how are you?' Compared with English, 身体 is the default polite check-in for wellbeing, especially with older people; saying 注意身体 ('take care of your health') as you part ways is as common as 'take care' in English.
For medical conditions and clinical states, switch to 健康 (jiànkāng, 'healthy / health' as a more formal noun). 身体 is also the word a doctor will ask about: 你身体哪儿不舒服? ('Where on your body is uncomfortable / what's wrong?').
Character by character
Memory hook: 身 and 体 both already mean 'body' — 身体 doubles up for the modern two-syllable noun.
身体 appears in 3 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
他身体很好。
Tā shēntǐ hěn hǎo.
He's in great health.
neutral
你最近身体怎么样？
Nǐ zuìjìn shēntǐ zěnmeyàng?
How has your health been lately?
spoken, polite
天气冷了，注意身体。
Tiānqì lěng le, zhùyì shēntǐ.
The weather's getting cold — take care of yourself.
spoken
我每天早上锻炼身体。
Wǒ měi tiān zǎoshang duànliàn shēntǐ.
I exercise every morning.
neutral
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