千 (qiān): thousand, used in 鞦韆|秋千

千 (qiān) is a Chinese character meaning “thousand.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丿 (structural) and 十 (structural). It ranks #599 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. thousand
  2. used in 鞦韆|秋千

Stroke Order

1
2
3

Practice writing 千 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 千

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
千万adverbqiān wànten million4
成千上万phrasechéng qiān shàng wàn(lit.) by the thousands and tens of thousands (idiom)6
千克measureqiān kèkilogram4
千家万户phraseqiān jiā wàn hùevery family (idiom)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
几千jǐ qiānseveral thousand
千年nounqiān niánmillennium
千真万确phraseqiān zhēn wàn quèabsolutely true (idiom)
成百上千chéng bǎi shàng qiānhundreds
数以千计shù yǐ qiān jìthousands (of sth)
千载难逢phraseqiān zǎi nán féngextremely rare (idiom)
秋千nounqiū qiānswing (seat hung from a frame or branch)
千金nounqiān jīnthousand jin 斤 (pounds) of gold
千里迢迢phraseqiān lǐ tiáo tiáo(idiom) from a great distance
荡秋千dàng qiū qiānto swing (on a swing)
成千chéng qiānthousands
千方百计phraseqiān fāng bǎi jìlit. thousand ways, a hundred plans (idiom)
一落千丈phraseyī luò qiān zhànglit. to drop a thousand zhang in one fall (idiom)
千篇一律phraseqiān piān yī lǜthousand articles, same rule (idiom)
千辛万苦phraseqiān xīn wàn kǔto suffer untold hardships (idiom)
100
Total compounds
64
As first character
11
As last character
25
As middle character

千 appears in 100 compound words: 64 as the first character, 11 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 千 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

米mǐ
0.728291,864 co-occurrences
平píng
0.657255,836 co-occurrences
方fāng
0.628258,024 co-occurrences
每měi
0.55166,922 co-occurrences
百bǎi
0.49436,214 co-occurrences
万wàn
0.45227,930 co-occurrences
皆jiē
0.44212,480 co-occurrences
瓦wǎ
0.43716,180 co-occurrences
户hù
0.4339,842 co-occurrences
趴pā
0.41610 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (57)

百计千方bǎi jì qiān fāngHSK 4+

see 千方百計|千方百计

phrase
百孔千疮bǎikǒngqiānchuāng

riddled with gaping wounds; afflicted with many ills; in very bad condition

phrase
百媚千娇bǎi mèi qiān jiāoHSK 7+

see 千嬌百媚|千娇百媚

phrase
不远千里bùyuǎnqiānlǐHSK 2+

to make light of travelling from afar; to go to the trouble of travelling a long distance

phrase
成千成万chéngqiānchéngwànHSK 3+

by the thousands and tens of thousands; untold numbers; innumerable; thousands upon thousands

phrase
成千累万chéngqiānlěiwànHSK 3+

by the thousands and tens of thousands; untold numbers; innumerable; thousands upon thousands

phrase
成千上万chéngqiānshàngwànHSK 3+

by the thousands and tens of thousands; untold numbers; innumerable; thousands upon thousands

phrase
大千世界dàqiānshìjièHSK 3+

trichiliocosm (billion-fold universe); the boundless universe

noun
各有千秋gèyǒuqiānqiūHSK 4+

each has its advantages

phrase
横扫千军héng sǎo qiān jūnHSK 6+

total annihilation

phrase
决胜千里jué shèng qiān lǐHSK 5+

to be able to plan victory from a thousand miles away (idiom)

phrase
千变万化qiānbiànwànhuàHSK 3+

an innumerable amount of changes; countless changes

phrase

Showing 12 of 57 idioms containing 千.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

成千上万的人参加了这场音乐会,现场气氛非常热烈。

Chéng qiān shàng wàn de rén cānjiā le zhè chǎng yīnyuèhuì, xiànchǎng qìfēn fēicháng rèliè.

Thousands of people attended this concert; the atmosphere was very enthusiastic.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

受冬季风暴影响 美国数千架次航班被取消

shòu dōng jì fēng bào yǐng xiǎng měi guó shǔ qiān jià cì háng bān bèi qǔ xiāo

Thousands of flights in the United States were canceled due to the winter storm

百度新闻Feb 2026

千城百县看中国·护航春运丨河北交通:智慧高...

qiān chéng bǎi xiàn kàn zhōng guó hù háng chūn yùn 丨 hé běi jiāo tōng : zhì huì gāo . . .

Thousands of cities and counties look at China and escort the Spring Festival丨Hebei transportation: high wisdom...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨95后潜水员与千年白鹤梁的水下之约

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hòu qián shuǐ yuán yú qiān nián bái hè liáng de shuǐ xià zhī yāo

New Year walk grassroots 丨 95 divers and the Millennium White Crane Liang underwater appointment

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨护送万千乡愁 奔赴团圆之路

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hù sòng mò qiān xiāng chóu bēn fù tuán yuán zhī lù

New Year walk grassroots 丨 escort thousands of nostalgia to the reunion road

百度新闻Feb 2026

...河山峡段4座梯级水电站累计发电破100亿千瓦时

. . . hé shān xiá duàn zuò tī jí shuǐ diàn zhàn lěi jì fā diàn pò yì qiān wǎ shí

The four-tier hydropower stations along the HeShan Gorge have cumulatively generated over 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Tatoeba

我用两千日元买了这本书。

Wǒ yòng liǎng qiān Rìyuán mǎi le zhè běn shū.

I paid two thousand yen for the book.

Tatoeba

成千上万的人想要知道答案。

Chéngqiānshàngwàn de rén xiǎng yào zhīdào dá'àn.

Thousands of people wanted to know the answer.

Tatoeba

千里之行,始于足下。

Qiānlǐzhīxíng, shǐyúzúxià.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Tatoeba

千万不要忘记带教科书。

Qiānwàn bù yào wàngjì dài jiàokēshū.

You must not forget your schoolbooks.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 千 (qiān) mean in Chinese?
千 (qiān) primarily means "thousand." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #599 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 千 have?
千 is written with 3 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 千?
The radical associated with 千 is 十 (ten). This radical appears in many characters related to ten.
What are the components of 千?
千 is composed of: 丿 (structural), 十 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱丿十 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 千?
Common words with 千 include: 千万 (qiān wàn, "ten million"); 成千上万 (chéng qiān shàng wàn, "(lit.) by the thousands and tens of thousands (idiom)"); 几千 (jǐ qiān, "several thousand"); 千年 (qiān nián, "millennium"); 千真万确 (qiān zhēn wàn què, "absolutely true (idiom)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 千 (qiān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiān: 前 (front), 钱 (money), 签 (to sign one's name), 潜 (hidden), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 千 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 千 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 千 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.