欠 (qiàn): to owe, to lack, (literary) to be deficient in

欠 (qiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to owe.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺈ (structural) and 人 (structural). It ranks #1923 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 欠 a man 人 yawning ⺈. Its radical form 欠 (yawn) appears in many related characters such as 次 (cì, next in sequence), 欢 (huān, hubbub), 歌 (gē, song).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to owe
  2. to lack
  3. (literary) to be deficient in

Etymology & Origin

欠

ideographicA man 人 yawning ⺈

Decomposition: ⿱⺈人 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
欠债verbqiàn zhàito owe a debt
欠款verbqiàn kuǎnto owe a debt
欠缺nounqiàn quēto be deficient in
亏欠verbkuī qiànto have a deficit
拖欠verbtuō qiànin arrears
打哈欠verbdǎ hā qianto yawn
欠费verbqiàn fèito be in arrears
呵欠nounhē qiànyawn
哈欠nounhā qianyawn
欠佳adjectiveqiàn jiāsuboptimal
欠账verbqiàn zhàngto owe a debt
欠条nounqiàn tiáoIOU
欠妥adjectiveqiàn tuǒimproper
欠安verbqiàn ānill (euphemism)
两不相欠phraseliǎng bù xiāng qiànto be even
30
Total compounds
50
As first character
43
As last character
7
As middle character

欠 appears in 30 compound words: 50 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 7 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 欠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

拖tuō
0.6143,082 co-occurrences
缺quē
0.5875,876 co-occurrences
薪xīn
0.5701,890 co-occurrences
佳jiā
0.4914,538 co-occurrences
债zhài
0.485666 co-occurrences
呵hē
0.474146 co-occurrences
亏kuī
0.471196 co-occurrences
款kuǎn
0.4471,806 co-occurrences
批pī
0.42219 co-occurrences
妥tuǒ
0.412228 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

两不相欠liǎngbùxiāngqiànHSK 5+

call it even

phrase
只欠东风zhǐ qiàn dōng fēngHSK 5+

all we need is an east wind (idiom); lacking only one tiny crucial item

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

欠字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

qiàn zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "欠" has different usages in different contexts.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

蒋万安推3大新政挨批仓促上路 绿议员叹欠缺沟通:别把好事给做坏

蒋 wàn ān tuī 3 dà xīn zhèng āi pī cāng cù shàng lù lǜ yì yuán tàn qiàn quē gōu tōng : bié bǎ hǎo shì gěi zuò huài

Jiang Wan'an pushed the three new policies and was criticized for rushing on the road, and the green lawmaker lamented the lack of communication: Don't do good things badly

Investing 香港Feb 2026

大市回稳但欠上冲动力

dà shì huí wěn dàn qiàn shàng chōng dòng lì

The market stabilized but lacked upward momentum

東森新聞Feb 2026

悚!知名餐厅女员工陈尸冰柜 生前欠债、心情低落

悚 ! zhī míng cān tīng nǚ yuán gōng chén shī bīng guì shēng qián qiàn zhài , xīn qíng dī luò

Scary! Chen Shi Freezer, a female employee of a well-known restaurant, owed debts and was depressed during her lifetime

Hk01.comFeb 2026

钟柔美陷“A0”风波网民批人设崩坏欠公信力 詹天文11字吐真言

zhōng róu měi xiàn A 0 fēng bō wǎng mín pī rén shè bēng huài qiàn gōng xìn lì 詹 tiān wén 1 1 zì tǔ zhēn yán

Zhong Roumei was trapped in the "A0" turmoil, netizens criticized the collapse of the character design and lacked credibility, and Zhan Tianwen spoke the truth in 11 words

東森新聞Feb 2026

被欠钱“拖过年” 女撂男友讨债砍前任一家三代

bèi qiàn qián tuō guò nián nǚ 撂 nán yǒu tǎo zhài kǎn qián rèn yī jiā sān dài

Being owed money "dragged on for the New Year" The woman abandoned her boyfriend to collect debts and cut off three generations of her ex's family

Tatoeba

汤姆欠玛丽许多钱。

Tāngmǔ qiàn Mǎlì xǔduō qián.

Tom owes Mary a lot of money.

Tatoeba

这家企业近6个月以来一直在欠薪。

Zhè jiā qǐyè jìn 6 gè yuè yǐlái yīzhí zài qiànxīn.

The business hasn't been paying for the last six months.

Tatoeba

关于那件事你欠我一个道歉。

Guānyú nà jiàn shì nǐ qiàn wǒ yī gè dàoqiàn.

You owe me an apology for that.

Tatoeba

汤姆想去还欠的钱。

Tāngmǔ xiǎng qù hái qiàn de qián.

Tom wants to pay back the money he owes.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 欠 (qiàn) mean in Chinese?
欠 (qiàn) primarily means "to owe." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1923 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 欠 have?
欠 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 欠?
The radical associated with 欠 is 欠 (yawn). This radical appears in many characters related to yawn.
What are the components of 欠?
欠 is composed of: ⺈ (structural), 人 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⺈人 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 欠?
Common words with 欠 include: 欠债 (qiàn zhài, "to owe a debt"); 欠款 (qiàn kuǎn, "to owe a debt"); 欠缺 (qiàn quē, "to be deficient in"); 亏欠 (kuī qiàn, "to have a deficit"); 拖欠 (tuō qiàn, "in arrears"). There are over 30 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 欠 (qiàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiàn: 前 (front), 钱 (money), 千 (thousand), 签 (to sign one's name), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 欠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 欠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 欠 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.