咸 meaning and stroke order
Salted; salty; stingy
How to write 咸, stroke by stroke
9 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 咸
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- all
- everyone
- each
- widespread
- harmonious
- salted
How 咸 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. One 一 voice 口 surrounded by conflict 戈.
Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.
How to remember 咸
Picture one 一 voice 口 tucked inside the weapon 戊, like a crowd under conflict that still speaks as one. Everyone saying the same thing gives the old meaning "all, together." Today the character mostly means salty.
In modern Chinese 咸 (xián) is the everyday word for salty taste. It appears in food words like 咸鱼 (xiányú, salted fish) and 咸菜 (xiáncài, pickles). Example: 这个汤太咸了。(Zhège tāng tài xián le.) This soup is too salty.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 咸 with 减 (jiǎn, to reduce), which adds the ice radical 冫 on the left. Also keep the second tone: xián, not xiǎn.
Common words with 咸
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 咸鱼 | xiányú | salted fish | |
| 咸菜 | xiáncài | salted vegetables; pickles |
咸 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 咸
Learning 咸 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 咸
How many strokes are in 咸?
咸 is written with 9 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 咸 mean?
咸 (xián) means salted; salty; stingy. A common word with it is 咸鱼 (xiányú), meaning "salted fish".
How do you pronounce 咸?
咸 is pronounced xián, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 咸?
The radical of 咸 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 咸 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 咸?
The traditional form of 咸 is 鹹. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 咸 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 咸 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 咸 is part of the HSK 4 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do you say something is not salty enough in Chinese?
Say 太淡了 (tài dàn le), meaning too bland. 淡 (dàn) is the usual opposite of 咸 when talking about food.
Why does 咸鱼 also describe a lazy person?
In casual slang, 咸鱼 (xiányú) means someone with no ambition, like a dried fish that does not move. 咸鱼翻身 (xiányú fānshēn) means a person who suddenly turns their luck around.