硖 meaning and stroke order
A town in Hebei province
How to write 硖, stroke by stroke
11 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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- 11
Meaning of 硖
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- place name
How 硖 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Stone.
石 gives the meaning and 夹 hints at the sound.
Radical: 石 (stone), shared by 114 characters on this site.
How to remember 硖
Picture stone 石 (shí) walls squeezing in on both sides, like 夹 (jiā) pinching something between them. The 石 gives the meaning of rock, and 夹 hints at the sound xiá.
硖 (xiá) is a rare character used almost only in place names, so you will mostly meet it on maps and signs. A well-known example is 硖石 (Xiáshí), a town in Haining, Zhejiang. Example: 他老家在硖石。 (Tā lǎojiā zài Xiáshí.) His hometown is Xiashi.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 硖 with 峡 (xiá, gorge), which has the same sound and the same 夹 part but uses the mountain radical 山. Use 峡 for words like 三峡 (Sānxiá, Three Gorges), and keep 硖 for place names.
Questions about 硖
How many strokes are in 硖?
硖 is written with 11 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 硖 mean?
硖 (xiá) means a town in Hebei province.
How do you pronounce 硖?
硖 is pronounced xiá, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 硖?
The radical of 硖 is 石, which carries the idea of "stone". Dictionaries list 硖 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 硖?
The traditional form of 硖 is 硤. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 硖 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Why is 硖 pronounced xiá when 夹 is usually jiā?
夹 is only a sound hint here, and sound hints often changed over time. Several characters built on 夹 are read xiá, such as 峡 (xiá) and 狭 (xiá, narrow), so 硖 follows that group.
Do I need to learn 硖 for everyday Chinese?
Not really. It almost never appears outside place names. Learn it if you travel to or read about places like 硖石, but focus on 峡 and 狭 first, since they are far more common.