蔼 (ǎi): friendly

蔼 (ǎi) is a Chinese character meaning “friendly.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 谒 (phonetic). It ranks #2917 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蔼 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. friendly

Etymology & Origin

蔼

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹谒 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Practice writing 蔼 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
和蔼adjectivehé ǎikindly
和蔼可亲phrasehé ǎi kě qīnaffable
蔼然adjectiveǎi ránamicable
温蔼wēn ǎigentle and kind
慈蔼cí ǎi(of demeanor or expression) kindly
蔼蔼adjectiveǎi ǎiluxuriant (vegetation)
6
Total compounds
33
As first character
50
As last character
17
As middle character

蔼 appears in 6 compound words: 33 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 17 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 蔼 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

亲qīn
0.435192 co-occurrences
遥yáo
0.36310 co-occurrences
恭gōng
0.34814 co-occurrences
倍bèi
0.34520 co-occurrences
乐lè
0.33958 co-occurrences
慈cí
0.33618 co-occurrences
和hé
0.334420 co-occurrences
亭tíng
0.32212 co-occurrences
盖gài
0.31714 co-occurrences
祥xiáng
0.31614 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

和蔼可亲hé'ǎikěqīnHSK 7+

affable; approachable

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个蔼字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě ǎi zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "蔼" is related to its radical.

少数派Aug 2026

我们一直聊到了饭局最后,海平叔和蔼可亲的笑容一直在我的脑海中久久不能散去。

wǒ men yī zhí liáo dào le fàn jú zuì hòu , hǎi píng shū hé ǎi kě qīn de xiào róng yī zhí zài wǒ de nǎo hǎi zhōng jiǔ jiǔ bù néng sàn qù .

We kept talking until the very end of the dinner, and Uncle Haiping’s warm, friendly smile lingered in my mind for a long time afterward.

IT之家May 2026

钱永刚在采访中提到,钱学森回国后,在和学生们相处中,总是非常和蔼。

qián yǒng gāng zài cǎi fǎng zhōng tí dào , qián xué sēn huí guó hòu , zài hé xué shēng men xiāng chǔ zhōng , zǒng shì fēi cháng hé ǎi .

In an interview, Qian Yonggang mentioned that after Qian Xuesen returned to China, he was always very affable in his interactions with students.

Fx168 Finance NetworkMar 2026

...77.HK):郑尔城辞任独董,建议委任周蔼华接任-FX168

. . . 7 7 . H K ) : zhèng ěr chéng cí rèn dú dǒng , jiàn yì wěi rèn zhōu ǎi huá jiē rèn F X 1 6 8

...77.HK): Zheng Ercheng Resigns as Independent Director; Zhou Aihua Proposed as Successor - FX168

Tatoeba

汤姆和玛丽都很和蔼,对吗?

Tāngmǔ hé Mǎlì dōu hěn hé'ǎi, duì ma?

Tom and Mary aren't so kind, are they?

Tatoeba

她对谁都很和蔼可亲。

Tā duì shéi dōu hěn hé'ǎi-kěqīn.

She is gracious to everyone.

Tatoeba

他是一个和蔼可亲的老师。

Tā shì yī gè hé'ǎikěqīn de lǎoshī.

He is a kind teacher.

Tatoeba

他天生就是一个和蔼可亲的人,所以很受住在附近的孩子欢迎。

Tā tiānshēng jiùshì yī gè hé'ǎikěqīn de rén, suǒyǐ hěn shòu zhù zài fùjìn de háizi huānyíng.

He is by nature a kind person and is popular with the children in his neighborhood.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (grass) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced ǎi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蔼 (ǎi) mean in Chinese?
蔼 (ǎi) primarily means "friendly." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2917 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 蔼 have?
蔼 is written with 14 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 蔼?
The radical associated with 蔼 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 蔼?
蔼 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 谒 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹谒 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蔼?
Common words with 蔼 include: 和蔼 (hé ǎi, "kindly"); 和蔼可亲 (hé ǎi kě qīn, "affable"); 蔼然 (ǎi rán, "amicable"); 温蔼 (wēn ǎi, "gentle and kind"); 慈蔼 (cí ǎi, "(of demeanor or expression) kindly"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蔼 (ǎi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ǎi: 爱 (to love), 艾 (Chinese mugwort or wormwood), 碍 (to hinder), 哀 ((bound form) sorrow), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蔼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蔼 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蔼 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.