歉 (qiàn): to apologize, to regret, deficient

歉 (qiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to apologize.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 兼 (phonetic) and 欠 (semantic). It ranks #2103 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 歉 lack. 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 apologize
  2. to regret
  3. deficient

Etymology & Origin

歉

pictophoneticlack

Decomposition: ⿰兼欠 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 歉

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
抱歉adjectivebào qiànto be sorry4
道歉verbdào qiànto apologize4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
歉意nounqiàn yìapology
致歉verbzhì qiànto apologize
歉疚adjectiveqiàn jiùremorseful
歉收verbqiàn shōucrop failure
6
Total compounds
50
As first character
50
As last character
0
As middle character

歉 appears in 6 compound words: 50 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 0 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 歉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

抱bào
0.6152,821 co-occurrences
道dào
0.52926,117 co-occurrences
赔péi
0.521636 co-occurrences
鞠jū
0.502351 co-occurrences
躬gōng
0.481353 co-occurrences
致zhì
0.4535,842 co-occurrences
跪guì
0.449202 co-occurrences
偿cháng
0.415254 co-occurrences
挚zhì
0.40860 co-occurrences
意yì
0.3892,880 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

歉字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

qiàn zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character for "apology" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

...高”路中央横放机车阻交通 高市党部发表道歉声明

. . . gāo lù zhōng yāng héng fàng jī chē zǔ jiāo tōng gāo shì dǎng bù fā biǎo dào qiàn shēng míng

... The Gao City Party Department issued an apology statement

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

深夜清通风井挨批 北捷致歉允诺改善

shēn yè qīng tōng fēng jǐng āi pī běi jié zhì qiàn yǔn nuò gǎi shàn

Late at night, the ventilation shaft was criticized, and Beijie apologized and promised to improve

TvbsFeb 2026

...!他断言“选举玩完了” 点名赖清德公开道歉

. . . ! tā duàn yán xuǎn jǔ wán wán le diǎn míng lài qīng dé gōng kāi dào qiàn

...! He asserted that "the election is over" and named Lai Qingde to publicly apologize

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...央切割” 傅崐萁:民进党政府不改善也不道歉

. . . yāng qiē gē fù 崐 萁 : mín jìn dǎng zhèng fǔ bù gǎi shàn yě bù dào qiàn

... Fu Kunqi: The DPP government does not improve or apologize

Tatoeba

我就是不道歉,你奈我何?

Wǒ jiùshì bù dàoqiàn, nǐ nài wǒ hé?

I'm not going to apologize. What are you going to do about it?

Tatoeba

你有火柴吗?很抱歉,我不抽菸。

Nǐ yǒu huǒchái ma? hěn bàoqiàn, wǒ bù chōuyān.

"Do you have a match?" "I'm sorry, but I don't smoke."

Tatoeba

抱歉,地铁几号线去市中心?

Bàoqiàn, dìtiě jǐ hào xiàn qù shìzhōngxīn?

Excuse me, which subway line is to the city centre?

Tatoeba

抱歉,附近的公交车站在哪儿?

Bàoqiàn, fùjìn de gōngjiāochē zhàn zài nǎr?

Sorry, where is the nearest bus stop?

Tatoeba

早安~抱歉,等很久了吗?

Zǎo'ān ~ bàoqiàn, děng hěn jiǔ le ma?

Morning! Sorry, did I keep you waiting?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 欠 (lack) component

欠 Radical Family — Characters sharing the yawn radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 歉 (qiàn) mean in Chinese?
歉 (qiàn) primarily means "to apologize." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2103 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 歉 and 嫌?
歉 (qiàn) and 嫌 (xián) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 欠 vs 女 (same 兼 component).
How many strokes does 歉 have?
歉 is written with 14 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 歉?
The radical associated with 歉 is 欠 (yawn). This radical appears in many characters related to yawn.
What are the components of 歉?
歉 is composed of: 兼 (phonetic), 欠 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰兼欠 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 歉?
Common words with 歉 include: 抱歉 (bào qiàn, "to be sorry"); 道歉 (dào qiàn, "to apologize"); 歉意 (qiàn yì, "apology"); 致歉 (zhì qiàn, "to apologize"); 歉疚 (qiàn jiù, "remorseful"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 歉 (qiàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiàn: 谦 (modest), 前 (front), 钱 (money), 千 (thousand), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 歉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 歉 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 歉 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.