吝 (lìn): (bound form) stingy

吝 (lìn) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) stingy.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 文 (structural) and 口 (structural). It ranks #3005 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

HSK 7-9 Radical: 口 mouth7 strokesFrequency #3005文 structural 口 structural

Definitions

(bound form) stingy

Stroke Order

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
吝啬	lìn sè	stingy
吝啬鬼	lìn sè guǐ	miser
不吝	bù lìn	not to stint
吝惜	lìn xī	to stint
不吝赐教	bù lìn cì jiào	to be so kind as to enlighten me
不吝珠玉	bù lìn zhū yù	(idiom) (courteous) please give me your frank opinion
悭吝	qiān lìn	(literary) miserly
鄙吝	bǐ lìn	vulgar

Total compounds

As first character

As last character

As middle character

吝 appears in 8 compound words: 38 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 25 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 吝 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

啬sè

0.8311,191 co-occurrences

惜xī

0.539714 co-occurrences

鄙bǐ

0.504156 co-occurrences

婪lán

0.49090 co-occurrences

悔huǐ

0.429132 co-occurrences

鬼guǐ

0.418366 co-occurrences

毫háo

0.409408 co-occurrences

贪tān

0.40566 co-occurrences

骄jiāo

0.39630 co-occurrences

狠hěn

0.37230 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

不吝赐教bùlìncìjiàoHSK 7+

to not be stinting with comments or criticism

phrase

不吝珠玉bù lìn zhū yùHSK 7+

(idiom) (courteous) please give me your frank opinion; your criticism will be most valuable

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请吝下这杯茶，解解渴再继续工作。

qǐng lìn xià zhè bēi chá , jiě jiě kě zài jì xù gōng zuò .

Please help yourself to this cup of tea to quench your thirst before getting back to work.

Character Family

口 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mouth radical

吃chī 喝hē 叫jiào 可kě 口kǒu 吗ma 名míng 吐tǔ 问wèn 响xiǎng

Related Characters

口kǒu 吃chī 喝hē 问wèn 叫jiào 响xiǎng 名míng 吐tǔ 可kě 吗ma

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 吝 (lìn) mean in Chinese?

吝 (lìn) primarily means "(bound form) stingy." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3005 in character frequency.

How many strokes does 吝 have?

吝 is written with 7 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 吝?

The radical associated with 吝 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.

What are the components of 吝?

吝 is composed of: 文 (structural), 口 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱文口 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.

What are common words containing 吝?

Common words with 吝 include: 吝啬 (lìn sè, "stingy"); 吝啬鬼 (lìn sè guǐ, "miser"); 不吝 (bù lìn, "not to stint"); 吝惜 (lìn xī, "to stint"); 不吝赐教 (bù lìn cì jiào, "to be so kind as to enlighten me"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.

Is 吝 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

Yes, 吝 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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