辛 meaning and stroke order
Bitter; toilsome, laborious; 8th heavenly stem
How to write 辛, stroke by stroke
7 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
Meaning of 辛
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (of taste) hot or pungent
- hard
- laborious
- suffering
- eighth in order
- eighth of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干[shi2 tian1 gan1]
How 辛 is built
Pictographic character. A hot iron used to brand prisoners and slaves.
How to remember 辛
辛 is a picture of a hot branding iron once used to mark prisoners and slaves. You can see it as 立 (lì, stand) on top of 十 (shí, ten): standing through ten kinds of pain is bitter, hard work.
辛 rarely appears alone in modern speech. It mostly shows up in words about hardship, like 辛苦 (xīnkǔ) and 辛勤 (xīnqín), and in food words for a pungent, spicy taste. Example: 你辛苦了。(Nǐ xīnkǔ le.) Thank you for your hard work.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 辛 with 幸 (xìng, lucky). 幸 has 土 on top and two short strokes in the middle, and it means the opposite idea. Also keep the first tone in 辛 (xīn), not the fourth tone of 幸.
Common words with 辛
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 辛苦 | xīnkǔ | exhausting; hard | HSK 5 |
| 艰辛 | jiānxīn | hardships; arduous | HSK 7-9 |
| 辛勤 | xīnqín | hardworking; industrious | HSK 7-9 |
| 辛酸 | xīnsuān | pungent (taste); bitter | HSK 7-9 |
| 辛辛苦苦 | xīnxīnkǔkǔ | painstakingly; with great trouble | |
| 辛劳 | xīnláo | laborious | |
| 千辛万苦 | qiānxīnwànkǔ | to suffer untold hardships (idiom); trials and tribulations; with difficulty |
辛 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 辛
Learning 辛 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 辛
How many strokes are in 辛?
辛 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 辛 mean?
辛 (xīn) means bitter; toilsome, laborious; 8th heavenly stem. A common word with it is 辛苦 (xīnkǔ), meaning "exhausting; hard".
How do you pronounce 辛?
辛 is pronounced xīn, in the first tone (high and level).
Is 辛 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 辛 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 3.
What does 你辛苦了 really mean?
It literally says "you have worked hard," but people use it to show thanks and appreciation for someone's effort. You can say it to a colleague, a delivery driver, or a host after they have done something for you.
Does 辛 mean spicy like 辣?
辛 describes a sharp, pungent taste, as in 辛辣 (xīnlà, pungent, hot). In everyday speech, people say 辣 (là) for spicy food. 辛 sounds more formal or descriptive.