虔 (qián): to act with reverence, reverent

虔 (qián) is a Chinese character meaning “to act with reverence.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虍 (structural) and 文 (structural). It ranks #2654 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to act with reverence
  2. reverent

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
虔诚adjectiveqián chéngpious
虔敬adjectiveqián jìngreverent
虔信主义qián xìn zhǔ yìfideism
虔信者qián xìn zhěpious believer
虔信派qián xìn pàipious sect
虔信qián xìnpiety
一秉虔诚yī bǐng qián chéngearnestly and sincerely (idiom)
敬虔adjectivejìng qiándevout
8
Total compounds
75
As first character
13
As last character
13
As middle character

虔 appears in 8 compound words: 75 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 13 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 虔 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

诚chéng
0.6703,089 co-occurrences
敬jìng
0.497994 co-occurrences
徒tú
0.419217 co-occurrences
仰yǎng
0.415366 co-occurrences
祈qí
0.409156 co-occurrences
僧sēng
0.404202 co-occurrences
信xìn
0.3871,393 co-occurrences
祷dǎo
0.38544 co-occurrences
恭gōng
0.34890 co-occurrences
奉fèng
0.331174 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

虔字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

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

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

IT之家Oct 2026

康拉德则被描述为虔诚、顾家的男性。

kāng lā dé zé bèi miáo shù wéi qián chéng , gù jiā de nán xìng .

Conrad, on the other hand, is described as a devout, family-oriented man.

中国新闻网·文化Apr 2026

“居敬”,是对知识的虔诚与专注,是摒除浮躁、沉心静气的治学态度。

jū jìng , shì duì zhī shí de qián chéng yǔ zhuān zhù , shì 摒 chú fú zào , chén xīn jìng qì de zhì xué tài dù .

“Diligence in Study” refers to a reverent and focused approach to knowledge—an academic attitude that rejects restlessness and fosters a calm and composed mindset.

BastillepostApr 2026

...美洲耶稣受难日巡游 信徒赤脚戴荆棘冠冕展虔诚

. . . měi zhōu yē 稣 shòu nán rì xún yóu xìn tú chì jiǎo dài jīng jí guàn 冕 zhǎn qián chéng

...Good Friday Processions in the Americas: Devotees Walk Barefoot and Wear Crowns of Thorns to Show Their Devotion

Tatoeba

我是一个虔诚的教徒,我相信死后的生命。

Wǒ shì yī gè qiánchéng de jiàotú, wǒ xiāngxìn sǐhòu de shēngmìng.

I'm a deeply religious man and believe in life after death.

Character Family

虍 Radical Family — Characters sharing the tiger radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced qián

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 虔 (qián) mean in Chinese?
虔 (qián) primarily means "to act with reverence." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2654 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 虔 have?
虔 is written with 10 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 虔?
The radical associated with 虔 is 虍 (tiger). This radical appears in many characters related to tiger.
What are the components of 虔?
虔 is composed of: 虍 (structural), 文 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸虍文 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 虔?
Common words with 虔 include: 虔诚 (qián chéng, "pious"); 虔敬 (qián jìng, "reverent"); 虔信主义 (qián xìn zhǔ yì, "fideism"); 虔信者 (qián xìn zhě, "pious believer"); 虔信派 (qián xìn pài, "pious sect"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 虔 (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 虔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 虔 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 虔 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.