寢 meaning and stroke order
To sleep, to rest; bedroom
How to write 寢, stroke by stroke
14 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
Meaning of 寢
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) to lie down to sleep or rest
- (bound form) bedroom
- (bound form) imperial tomb
- (literary) to stop; to cease
How 寢 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. A person 彐冖又 lying down on a bed 爿 in their home 宀.
Radical: 宀 (roof), shared by 67 characters on this site.
How to remember 寢
Under the roof 宀 of a home, a person (彐冖又) lies on a bed 爿. Picture someone stretched out on a bed inside the house, and you have 寢 (qǐn), to sleep or rest.
寢 (qǐn) is a bound form, so it appears inside words rather than alone. The most common word is 寝室 (qǐnshì), which students use for a dorm room, and the idiom 废寝忘食 (fèiqǐn-wàngshí) praises someone who works so hard they forget sleep and meals. Example: 我回寝室了。(Wǒ huí qǐnshì le.) I'm going back to the dorm.
Common mistake: Learners often say 寢 by itself to mean "sleep," but in everyday speech you use 睡觉 (shuìjiào) instead. Also keep the third tone, qǐn, and do not confuse it with 侵 (qīn, to invade), which shares the right side but has a first tone.
Common words with 寢
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
Questions about 寢
How many strokes are in 寢?
寢 is written with 14 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 寢 mean?
寢 (qǐn) means to sleep, to rest; bedroom. A common word with it is 寝室 (qǐnshì), meaning "bedroom; dormitory".
How do you pronounce 寢?
寢 is pronounced qǐn, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 寢?
The radical of 寢 is 宀, which carries the idea of "roof". Dictionaries list 寢 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 寢?
寢 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 寝, used in mainland China and Singapore.
Why does 寢 look different in simplified Chinese?
The simplified form 寝 replaces the bed component 爿 with 丬, a reduced version of the same part. The meaning and pronunciation stay the same.
What does 寢 mean in words like 陵寢?
In 陵寝 (língqǐn), 寢 refers to an imperial tomb, the "resting place" of an emperor. This sense appears mainly in history and tourism contexts.