Meaning of 咸
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- salted
- salty
- stingy
- miserly
- all
- everyone
- each
- widespread
- harmonious
- surname Xian
How to use 咸
In everyday Mandarin 咸 (xián) mostly means salty, describing food or taste, and it often appears with 太 (tài, too) when food is over-seasoned. It also shows up 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.
Picture 咸 (xián) as a mouth 口 tucked inside a big frame, tasting something so salty it makes you wince. Think of the mouth as the part that notices the salt.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 咸 (xián) with 减 (jiǎn, to reduce), which adds the ice radical 冫 on the left and has a different tone. Also remember 咸 is second tone, so do not say it like 先 (xiān).
咸 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
咸 xián · salted · 9 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 咸.
| 咸鱼 | xiányú | salted fish |
| 咸菜 | xiáncài | salted vegetables; pickles |
Questions about 咸
What does 咸 mean?
咸 (xián) means "salted; salty" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 咸?
咸 is made of 1 character: 咸 (9 strokes). That is 9 strokes in total.
Is 咸 an HSK word?
Yes. 咸 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 咸 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 咸 is written 鹹.
How do you say salty versus sweet, sour, and spicy in Chinese?
The basic taste words are 咸 (xián) salty, 甜 (tián) sweet, 酸 (suān) sour, 辣 (là) spicy, and 苦 (kǔ) bitter. You can say 有点儿咸 (yǒudiǎnr xián) for a little salty.
Does 咸 still mean all or everyone in modern Chinese?
That meaning is literary and appears mainly in classical texts and set phrases, such as 老少咸宜 (lǎoshào xián yí), suitable for young and old. In daily speech 咸 almost always means salty.