(jiàn): to see, to meet, to appear (to be sth)

(jiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to see.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #153 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, simplified form of 見; a man 儿 with the eye 目 emphasized. Its radical form (see) appears in many related characters such as (guàn, to look at), (guī, compass), (lǎn, to look at).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to see
  2. to meet
  3. to appear (to be sth)

Etymology & Origin

ideographicSimplified form of 見; a man 儿 with the eye 目 emphasized

Decomposition: ⿵冂儿 (layout: surround-from-top)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbkàn jiànto see1
verbzài jiàngoodbye1
verbjiàn miànto meet3
nounyì jiànidea4
verbtīng jiànto hear1
verbbù jiànnot to see3
verbyù jiànto meet3
verbhuì jiànto meet with (sb who is paying a visit)6
cháng jiàncommonly seen3
adjectivehǎn jiànrare6
verbpèng jiànto run into5
adjectiveshǎo jiànrare4
conjunctionkě jiànit can clearly be seen (that this is the case)5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiàn dàoto see
jiàn guǐabsurd
xiǎng jiànto infer
jiàn shito gain first-hand knowledge of sth
huí jiànSee you later!
jiàn zhèngto be witness to
mèng jiànto dream about (sth or sb)
yù jiànto foresee
piān jiànprejudice
qǐ jiànmotive
xiāng jiànto see each other
qiáo jiànto see
jiàn jiěopinion
yuǎn jiànforesight
jiē jiànto receive sb
100
Total compounds
30
As first character
70
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 30 as the first character, 70 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

cān
0.713677,964 co-occurrences
hǎn
0.53929,444 co-occurrences
cháng
0.492130,320 co-occurrences
xiáng
0.46511,574 co-occurrences
0.46091,866 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.42021,342 co-occurrences
lìng
0.40835,832 co-occurrences
kuī
0.390642 co-occurrences
piān
0.38911,652 co-occurrences
kàn
0.37423,350 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (53)

bì bù jiàn miànHSK 5+

to refuse to meet sb; to avoid sb

phrase
céng xiàn dié chūHSK 7+

variant of 層見疊出|层见叠出[ceng2 xian4 die2 chu1]

phrase
céngxiàndiéchūHSK 7+

to occur frequently; to appear repeatedly

phrase
gèchíjǐjiànHSK 4+

each sticking to their own views

phrase
gèshūjǐjiànHSK 7+

each expresses their own views

phrase
gèzhíjǐjiànHSK 5+

each sticking to their own views

phrase
gè zhí suǒ jiànHSK 5+

each sticks to his own view

phrase
gùzhíjǐjiànHSK 5+

to stick stubbornly to one's own views

phrase
guǎn jiàn suǒ jíHSK 4+

in my humble opinion (idiom)

phrase
hǎojiǔbùjiànHSK 3+

long time no see

héyǐjiàndéHSK 4+

How can you know that...?; Why do you think that...?

phrase
jiàn cái qǐ yìHSK 6+

seeing riches provokes evil designs

phrase

Showing 12 of 53 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他的解很独到,给了我们很多新的启发。

Tā de jiànjiě hěn dúdào, gěi le wǒmen hěn duō xīn de qǐfā.

His insights are very unique and have given us a lot of new inspiration.

WorldjournalFeb 2026

...风雪来袭 纽约市周一停课停学 19年来首

. . . fēng xuě lái xí niǔ yuē shì zhōu yī tíng kè tíng xué 1 9 nián lái shǒu jiàn

... Snowstorm hit New York City on Monday to suspend classes and schools for the first time in 19 years

百度新闻Feb 2026

金马|财通证券资管马晓立:厚植金融为民底...

yù jiàn jīn mǎ cái tōng zhèng quàn zī guǎn mǎ xiǎo lì : hòu zhí jīn róng wéi mín de . . .

Foresight of Golden Horse|Caitong Securities Asset Management Ma Xiaoli: Cultivate finance for the people...

百度新闻Feb 2026

把年味种在“商城之心”,在商博遇另一种团圆

bǎ nián wèi zhǒng zài shāng chéng zhī xīn , zài shāng bó yù jiàn lìng yī zhǒng tuán yuán

Plant the flavor of the New Year in the "heart of the mall" and meet another reunion at the Business Expo

百度新闻Feb 2026

春晚这扇“窗”,照中国机器人产业“跑”出倍速

chūn wǎn zhè shān chuāng , zhào jiàn zhōng guó jī qì rén chǎn yè pǎo chū bèi sù

Spring Festival Gala this "window", see China's robotics industry "run" out of times speed

百度新闻Feb 2026

(新春闻)探访阿波迪科技小院:中国春节“撞上”...

xīn chūn jiàn wén tàn fǎng ā bō dí kē jì xiǎo yuàn zhōng guó chūn jié zhuàng shǎng . . .

(Spring Festival Observations) Visiting Abodi Technology Courtyard: Chinese New Year Meets...

Tatoeba

“以前我们没在哪儿过吗?”学生问道。

"Yǐqián wǒmen méi zài nǎr jiàn guo ma?" xuésheng wèndào.

"Haven't we met somewhere before?" asked the student.

Tatoeba

您曾经过考拉吗?

Nín céngjīng jiàn guo kǎolā ma?

Have you ever seen a koala?

Tatoeba

我的手机不了,怎么办?

Wǒ de shǒujī bùjiànle, zěnmebàn?

I lost my phone, what should I do?

Tatoeba

你是何时与她面的?

Nǐ shì héshí yǔ tā jiànmiàn de?

When did you see her?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the see radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 见 (jiàn) mean in Chinese?
见 (jiàn) primarily means "to see." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #153 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 见 have?
见 is written with 4 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 见?
The radical associated with 见 is 见 (see). This radical appears in many characters related to see.
What are the components of 见?
见 is composed of: 冂 (structural), 儿 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵冂儿 with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 见?
Common words with 见 include: 看见 (kàn jiàn, "to see"); 再见 (zài jiàn, "goodbye"); 见到 (jiàn dào, "to see"); 见面 (jiàn miàn, "to meet"); 意见 (yì jiàn, "idea"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 见 (jiàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiàn: 坚 (strong), 间 (room, between), 肩 (shoulder), 减 (to lower), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 见 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 见 and the traditional form is 見.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.