潜 (qián): hidden, secret, latent

潜 (qián) is a Chinese character meaning “hidden.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 替 (phonetic). It ranks #1111 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 潜 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. hidden
  2. secret
  3. latent

Etymology & Origin

潜

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵替 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 潜

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
潜力nounqián lìpotential6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
潜水verbqián shuǐto dive
潜在adjectiveqián zàihidden
潜艇nounqián tǐnga submarine
潜入verbqián rùto submerge
潜意识nounqián yì shíunconscious mind
潜质nounqián zhìpotential
潜逃verbqián táoto abscond
潜伏verbqián fúto hide
潜水员nounqián shuǐ yuándiver
潜能nounqián néngpotential
潜水艇nounqián shuǐ tǐnga submarine
潜台词nounqián tái cíunspoken dialogue in a play, left for the audience to infer
潜藏verbqián cánghidden beneath the surface
潜水衣nounqián shuǐ yīdiving suit
潜心verbqián xīnto concentrate fully on sth
70
Total compounds
67
As first character
7
As last character
26
As middle character

潜 appears in 70 compound words: 67 as the first character, 7 as the last, and 26 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 潜 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

艇tǐng
0.64024,059 co-occurrences
伏fú
0.4832,183 co-occurrences
艘sōu
0.4451,742 co-occurrences
鸭yā
0.441312 co-occurrences
水shuǐ
0.4358,132 co-occurrences
猎liè
0.412468 co-occurrences
舰jiàn
0.4111,674 co-occurrences
汤tāng
0.409504 co-occurrences
核hé
0.4011,962 co-occurrences
力lì
0.3885,876 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

弃保潜逃qìbǎoqiántáoHSK 6+

to abscond

verb
潜神默记qián shén mò jìHSK 6+

to devote oneself to a task in silence (idiom)

phrase
潜移默化qiányímòhuàHSK 6+

to influence secretly, subtly; to change due to unnoticeable influence

phrase
畏罪潜逃wèi zuì qián táoHSK 7+

to flee to escape punishment; to abscond from justice

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

站在桥上望去,潜水缓缓向东流去。

zhàn zài qiáo shǎng wàng qù , qián shuǐ huǎn huǎn xiàng dōng liú qù .

Standing on the bridge, the river flows slowly eastward.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...(01910.HK)美国双重上市估值重估潜力遭忽略 评级“买入”

. . . ( 0 1 9 1 0 . H K ) měi guó shuāng chóng shàng shì gū zhí chóng gū qián lì zāo hū lüè píng jí mǎi rù

... (01910.HK) The valuation revaluation potential of the US dual listing is ignored, and the rating is "buy"

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

辉达进驻北士科!渣打看好高资产潜力 天母将设国际私人理财中心

huī dá jìn zhù běi shì kē ! zhā dǎ kàn hǎo gāo zī chǎn qián lì tiān mǔ jiāng shè guó jì sī rén lǐ cái zhōng xīn

Huida enters Beishike! Standard Chartered is optimistic about the potential of high assets Tianmu will set up an international private wealth management center

中時新聞網Feb 2026

【推进AUKUS计画】澳采购英潜舰核反应炉零组件

tuī jìn A U K U S jì huà ào cǎi gòu yīng qián jiàn hé fǎn yīng lú líng zǔ jiàn

【Promoting the AUKUS Project】Australia procures components for the nuclear reactor of British submarines

Am730Feb 2026

...C”画面爆回响 与李海铜“暖心闺密”获封潜力 CP

. . . C huà miàn bào huí xiǎng yǔ lǐ hǎi tóng nuǎn xīn guī mì huò fēng qián lì C P

... C" picture exploded with reverberation, and Li Haitong's "heart-warming girlfriend" was awarded potential CP

LtnFeb 2026

潜入国小偷拍女童如厕判7年2月 恶男二审刑...

qián rù guó xiǎo tōu pāi nǚ tóng rú cè pàn 7 nián 2 yuè è nán èr shěn xíng . . .

Infiltrated the elementary school to secretly photograph a girl going to the toilet and was sentenced to 7 years and 2 years, and the evil man was sentenced to the second trial...

Tatoeba

你曾试过用水肺潜水吗?

Nǐ céng shì guo yòng shuǐfèi qiánshuǐ ma?

Have you ever tried scuba diving?

Tatoeba

要解开谋杀背后潜藏之谜!

Yào jiěkāi móushā bèihòu qiáncáng zhī mí!

Solve the mystery lurking behind the murder!

Tatoeba

我认为,你已经完全具备了潜伏的资质。

Wǒ rènwéi, nǐ yǐjīng wánquán jùbèi le qiánfú de zīzhì.

I believe you already possess all the qualities needed to go undercover.

Tatoeba

他潜进水里,然后又浮上水来换气。

Tā qiánjìn Shuǐlǐ, ránhòu yòu fúshàng shuǐ lái huànqì.

He dived into the water and came up for air.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced qián

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 潜 (qián) mean in Chinese?
潜 (qián) primarily means "hidden." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1111 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 潜 have?
潜 is written with 15 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 潜?
The radical associated with 潜 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 潜?
潜 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 替 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵替 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 潜?
Common words with 潜 include: 潜力 (qián lì, "potential"); 潜水 (qián shuǐ, "to dive"); 潜在 (qián zài, "hidden"); 潜艇 (qián tǐng, "a submarine"); 潜入 (qián rù, "to submerge"). There are over 70 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 潜 (qián)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qián: 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 潜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 潜 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 潜 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.