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).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 艹 grass14 strokesFrequency #2917艹 semantic谒 phonetic

Definitions

  1. friendly

Etymology & Origin

蔼

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹谒 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹semantic谒phonetic

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hé ǎikindly
和蔼可亲hé ǎi kě qīnaffable
蔼然ǎi ránamicable
温蔼wēn ǎigentle and kind
蔼蔼ǎi ǎiluxuriant (vegetation)
5
Total compounds
40
As first character
40
As last character
20
As middle character

蔼 appears in 5 compound words: 40 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 20 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
0.461568 co-occurrences
遥yáo
0.36830 co-occurrences
恭gōng
0.35342 co-occurrences
倍bèi
0.35060 co-occurrences
和hé
0.3451,247 co-occurrences
乐lè
0.344174 co-occurrences
慈cí
0.34154 co-occurrences
可kě
0.336574 co-occurrences
亭tíng
0.32736 co-occurrences
盖gài
0.32242 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.

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

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

艹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the grass radical

艾ài芭bā薄báo蔽bì菜cài苍cāng藏zàng草cǎo茶chá葱cōng

Related Characters

花huā茶chá菜cài节jié英yīng草cǎo药yào蓝lán艺yì苦kǔ

Homophones — Characters pronounced ǎi

哎āi哀āi唉āi挨āi癌ái矮ǎi艾ài爱ài隘ài碍ài

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"); 蔼蔼 (ǎi ǎi, "luxuriant (vegetation)"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蔼 (ǎi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ǎi: 哎 (hey!), 哀 (Ai (c. 2000 BC), sixth of legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God, also known as Li 釐|厘), 唉 (interjection or grunt of agreement or recognition (e.g. yes, it's me!)), 挨 (in order), 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

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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.