隘 (ài): (bound form) narrow, (bound form) a defile, a narrow pass

隘 (ài) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) narrow.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 阝 (semantic) and 益 (phonetic). It ranks #2826 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 隘 hill. Its radical form 阝 (mound) appears in many related characters such as 那 (nà, (specifier) that), 都 (dōu, all), 院 (yuàn, courtyard).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 阝 mound12 strokesFrequency #2826阝 semantic益 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (bound form) narrow
  2. (bound form) a defile
  3. a narrow pass

Etymology & Origin

隘

pictophonetichill

Decomposition: ⿰阝益 (layout: left-right)

Components:阝semantic益phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
狭隘adjectivexiá ài(of a path etc) narrow
隘口nounài kǒumountain pass
关隘nounguān àimountain pass
隘路nounài lùdefile
要隘nounyào àistrategic pass
心胸狭隘xīn xiōng xiá àinarrow
山隘nounshān àimountain pass
隘谷ài gǔravine
8
Total compounds
38
As first character
63
As last character
0
As middle character

隘 appears in 8 compound words: 38 as the first character, 63 as the last, and 0 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 隘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

狭xiá
0.623762 co-occurrences
勇yǒng
0.463556 co-occurrences
剥bāo
0.40458 co-occurrences
胸xiōng
0.398128 co-occurrences
口kǒu
0.3971,440 co-occurrences
陋lòu
0.37926 co-occurrences
溪xī
0.378230 co-occurrences
关guān
0.362516 co-occurrences
窄zhǎi
0.34238 co-occurrences
守shǒu
0.336244 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

隘字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

ài zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "隘" is not frequently used in everyday life.

中国新闻网·体育Jun 2026

“天下第一雄关”嘉峪关是全国长城文化重要标志地，有“河西第一隘口”“边陲锁钥”之称。

tiān xià dì yī xióng guān jiā 峪 guān shì quán guó cháng chéng wén huà chóng yāo biāo zhì dì , yǒu hé xī dì yī ài kǒu biān 陲 suǒ yuè zhī chèn .

Jia Yu Guan, known as “the Number One Fortress Under Heaven,” is a major symbol of Great Wall culture in China and is also referred to as “the Number One Pass in Hexi” and “the Key to the Frontier.”

Tatoeba

别让狭隘的人让你相信你的梦想过于宏大。

Bié ràng xiá'ài de rén ràng nǐ xiāngxìn nǐ de mèngxiǎng guòyú hóngdà.

Don't let narrow-minded people convince you that your dreams are too big.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 阝 (hill) component

都dōu部bù院yuàn际jì阿ā险xiǎn防fáng限xiàn降jiàng陆lù

Related Characters

那nà都dōu院yuàn部bù队duì阳yáng阴yīn际jì随suí邮yóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced ài

爱ài艾ài碍ài哀āi癌ái挨āi矮ǎi唉āi哎āi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 隘 (ài) mean in Chinese?
隘 (ài) primarily means "(bound form) narrow." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2826 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 隘 and 宽?
隘 (ài) and 宽 (kuān) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 隘 (narrow) vs 宽 (wide).
How many strokes does 隘 have?
隘 is written with 12 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 隘?
The radical associated with 隘 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 隘?
隘 is composed of: 阝 (semantic), 益 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝益 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 隘?
Common words with 隘 include: 狭隘 (xiá ài, "(of a path etc) narrow"); 隘口 (ài kǒu, "mountain pass"); 关隘 (guān ài, "mountain pass"); 隘路 (ài lù, "defile"); 要隘 (yào ài, "strategic pass"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 隘 (ài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ài: 爱 (to love), 艾 (Chinese mugwort or wormwood), 碍 (to hinder), 哀 ((bound form) sorrow), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 隘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 隘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.