(miǎn): to excuse sb, to exempt, to remove or dismiss from office

(miǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to excuse sb.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #755 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to excuse sb
  2. to exempt
  3. to remove or dismiss from office

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
verbmiǎn fèifree (of charge)4
verbbì miǎnto avert5
verbmiǎn yìimmunity (to disease)6
conjunctionyǐ miǎnin order to avoid6
adjectivenán miǎnhard to avoid6
verbmiǎn shuìnot liable to taxation (of monastery, imperial family etc)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
huò miǎnto exempt
huò miǎn quánimmunity from prosecution
shè miǎnto pardon
miǎn deso as not to
bù kě bì miǎn(idiom) inevitable
xìng miǎnto avoid (an unpleasant fate)
miǎn shòuto avoid suffering
wèi miǎnunavoidably
miǎn chúto prevent
miǎn yúto be saved from
miǎn zāoto avoid suffering
miǎn zéexemption from responsibility
zài suǒ nán miǎnto be unavoidable (idiom)
miǎn bù liǎounavoidable
miǎn yì lìimmunity
74
Total compounds
54
As first character
27
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 74 compound words: 54 as the first character, 27 as the last, and 19 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.

0.796242,114 co-occurrences
huá
0.68826,619 co-occurrences
0.61659,651 co-occurrences
fèi
0.61373,735 co-occurrences
0.56315,384 co-occurrences
shuì
0.4659,594 co-occurrences
qiān
0.44612,948 co-occurrences
é
0.44215 co-occurrences
xiáo
0.4222,274 co-occurrences
zhí
0.42022,128 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

bèi dòng miǎn yìHSK 6+

passive immunity

phrase
bùkěbìmiǎnHSK 5+

unavoidable; inevitable

phrase
miǎn kāi zūn kǒuHSK 4+

keep your thoughts to yourself

phrase
miǎnyì xìtǒngHSK 6+

immune system

noun
kǒuzhào shíqīHSK 6+

a financial loss may prevent disaster

phrase
wèi néng miǎn súHSK 5+

unable to break the custom (idiom); bound by conventions

phrase
wúkěbìmiǎnHSK 5+

unavoidable; inevitable

phrase
zàisuǒnánmiǎnHSK 4+

unavoidable

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

凭学生证可以费参观博物馆。

Píng xuéshēng zhèng kěyǐ miǎnfèi cānguān bówùguǎn.

With a student ID, you can visit the museum for free.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

业界倡上调基本税额一成 预算案料难大派糖 吁多照顾打工...

yè jiè chàng shàng diào jī běn miǎn shuì é yī chéng yù suàn àn liào nán dà pài táng xū duō zhào gù dǎ gōng . . .

The industry advocates raising the basic tax exemption by 10%, and the budget is difficult to distribute sugar, calling for more care of part-time workers...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

... 游客百元入住大理医院住宿中心:设施新兼费泊车

. . . yóu kè bǎi yuán rù zhù dà lǐ yī yuàn zhù sù zhōng xīn : shè shī xīn jiān miǎn fèi bó chē

... Tourists stay in Dali Hospital Accommodation Center for 100 yuan: new facilities and free parking

百度新闻Feb 2026

(新春走基层)福建福州:民众春节费乘坐地铁出行

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng fú jiàn fú zhōu mín zhòng chūn jié miǎn fèi chéng zuò dì tiě chū háng

(Chinese New Year) Fuzhou, Fujian: people travel free on the subway in the Spring Festival

百度新闻Feb 2026

...泾喊你来赏梅,只要名字里有这个字,门票全!

. . . 泾 hǎn nǐ lái shǎng méi , zhī yāo míng zì lǐ yǒu zhè gě zì , mén piào quán miǎn !

... Jing calls you to enjoy the plum, as long as the name has this word, the ticket is free!

百度新闻Feb 2026

中俄互签证下的“新鲜事”

zhōng é hù miǎn qiān zhèng xià de xīn xiān shì

New Developments Under the China-Russia Visa-Free Agreement

Tatoeba

有时候盟军无法避战争。

Yǒushíhou méngjūn wúfǎ bìmiǎn zhànzhēng.

Sometimes the Allies could not avoid battle.

Tatoeba

你想要知道如何避皱纹吗?

Nǐ xiǎngyào zhīdào rúhé bìmiǎn zhòuwén ma?

Would you like to know how to prevent getting wrinkles?

Tatoeba

堤坝保护了城市受洪灾。

Dībà bǎohù le chéngshì miǎnshòu hóngzāi.

The bank secured the city from a flood.

Tatoeba

小洞及时补,遭大洞苦。

Xiǎo dòng jíshí bǔ, miǎnzāo dà dòng kǔ.

A stitch in time saves nine.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced miǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 免 (miǎn) mean in Chinese?
免 (miǎn) primarily means "to excuse sb." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #755 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 免 have?
免 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 免?
The radical associated with 免 is 儿 (legs). This radical appears in many characters related to legs.
What are the components of 免?
免 is composed of: ⺈ (structural), undefined (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⺈⿻口儿 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 免?
Common words with 免 include: 免费 (miǎn fèi, "free (of charge)"); 避免 (bì miǎn, "to avert"); 豁免 (huò miǎn, "to exempt"); 豁免权 (huò miǎn quán, "immunity from prosecution"); 赦免 (shè miǎn, "to pardon"). There are over 74 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 免 (miǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation miǎn: 眠 (to sleep), 绵 (silk floss), 棉 (generic term for cotton or kapok), 勉 (to exhort), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 免 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 免 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.