喃 (nán): mumble in repetition

喃 (nán) is a Chinese character meaning “mumble in repetition.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 南 (phonetic). It ranks #3628 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 喃 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 吃 (chī, to eat), 喝 (hē, to drink).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 口 mouth12 strokesFrequency #3628口 semantic南 phonetic

Definitions

  1. mumble in repetition

Etymology & Origin

喃

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口南 (layout: left-right)

Components:口semantic南phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
喃喃nán nán(onom.) to mutter
呢喃verbní nán(onom.) twittering of birds
呢喃细语ní nán xì yǔwhispering in a low voice (idiom)
呋喃西林fū nán xī línfuracilinum (loanword)
喃喃自语nán nán zì yǔto mumble to oneself
喃字nounnán zìVietnam characters (like Chinese characters but native to Vietnam)
吡喃bǐ nánpyran (chemistry) (loanword)
呋喃fū nánfuran (furfuran, used in making nylon) (loanword)
8
Total compounds
38
As first character
38
As last character
25
As middle character

喃 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.

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

喃喃自语nán nán zì yǔ

to mumble to oneself

phrase
呢喃细语ní nán xì yǔ

whispering in a low voice (idiom); murmuring

phrase

Example Sentences

少数派Apr 2026

她一脸不快，喃喃自语：“我才不跟一群老头老太太们一起过生日呢”。

tā yī liǎn bù kuài , nán nán zì yǔ : wǒ cái bù gēn yī qún lǎo tóu lǎo tài tài men yī qǐ guò shēng rì ne .

She looked displeased and muttered to herself, “I’m not going to celebrate my birthday with a bunch of old men and women.”

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

和hé知zhī问wèn呢ne叫jiào吧ba吗ma吃chī号hào哪nǎ

Related Characters

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

Homophones — Characters pronounced nán

楠nán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 喃 (nán) mean in Chinese?
喃 (nán) primarily means "mumble in repetition." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3628 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 喃 and 献?
喃 (nán) and 献 (xiàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 犭 (same 南 component).
How many strokes does 喃 have?
喃 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 喃?
The radical associated with 喃 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 喃?
喃 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 南 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口南 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 喃?
Common words with 喃 include: 喃喃 (nán nán, "(onom.) to mutter"); 呢喃 (ní nán, "(onom.) twittering of birds"); 呢喃细语 (ní nán xì yǔ, "whispering in a low voice (idiom)"); 呋喃西林 (fū nán xī lín, "furacilinum (loanword)"); 喃喃自语 (nán nán zì yǔ, "to mumble to oneself"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 喃 (nán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation nán: 楠 (Machilus nanmu). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 喃 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 喃 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.