(qiè): to steal, secretly, (humble) I

(qiè) is a Chinese character meaning “to steal.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2067 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hole. Its radical form (cave) appears in many related characters such as 穿 (chuān, to wear, 穿透), (kōng, empty, sky), (, sudden).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to steal
  2. secretly
  3. (humble) I

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichole

Decomposition: ⿱穴切 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dào qièto steal
tōu qièto steal
qiè tīng qìtapping device
qiè tīngto eavesdrop
shī qièto lose by theft
qiè qǔto steal (usu. private information, intellectual property etc)
piāo qièto plunder
qiè zéithief
qiè xiàoto snigger
pá qièto steal
qiè mìto steal secret information
guàn qièhabitual thief
xíng qièto steal
qiè shēngin a whisper
shēn fèn dào qièidentity theft
29
Total compounds
59
As first character
38
As last character
3
As middle character

appears in 29 compound words: 59 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 3 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

dào
0.78719,280 co-occurrences
lèi
0.53310,242 co-occurrences
tōu
0.5323,051 co-occurrences
zéi
0.5271,169 co-occurrences
àn
0.52711,508 co-occurrences
tīng
0.5252,736 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.50710,974 co-occurrences
0.458180 co-occurrences
kuī
0.449120 co-occurrences
0.4255,316 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

qièqièsīyǔHSK 7+

to talk in whispers

phrase
tōuxiāngqièyùHSK 7+

love affair; philandering, secret illicit sex

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le qiè zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "steal" in the dictionary.

It之家Feb 2026

...美法官驳回 xAI 指控 OpenAI 取商业机密的诉讼

. . . měi fǎ guān bó huí x A I zhǐ kòng O p e n A I qiè qǔ shāng yè jī mì de sù sòng

... A U.S. judge has dismissed xAI's lawsuit accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets

StheadlineFeb 2026

牛池湾彩辉邨单位遭爆 失3只劳力士及珠宝现金 总值85万元

niú chí wān cǎi huī 邨 dān wèi zāo bào qiè shī 3 zhī láo lì shì jí zhū bǎo xiàn jīn zǒng zhí 8 5 wàn yuán

A unit in Choi Fai Estate, Ngau Chi Wan, was burglarized, and 3 Rolexes and jewelry were lost in cash with a total value of $850,000

Hk01.comFeb 2026

Anthropic指控中国对手大规模取数据 吁行业与政府协力应对

A n t h r o p i c zhǐ kòng zhōng guó duì shǒu dà guī mó qiè qǔ shǔ jù xū háng yè yǔ zhèng fǔ xié lì yīng duì

Anthropic accuses Chinese adversaries of large-scale data theft and calls on industry and government to work together

Investing 香港Feb 2026

Anthropic指控中国AI实验室取Claude数据

A n t h r o p i c zhǐ kòng zhōng guó A I shí yàn shì qiè qǔ C l a u d e shǔ jù

Anthropic accused Chinese AI labs of stealing Claude's data

EttodayFeb 2026

日本大阪Brand Off遭! 歹徒破窗狂扫数十件贵金属奢侈品

rì běn dà 阪 B r a n d O f f zāo qiè ! dǎi tú pò chuāng kuáng sǎo shǔ shí jiàn guì jīn shǔ shē chǐ pǐn

Brand Off in Osaka, Japan was stolen! Gangsters broke windows and swept dozens of precious metal luxury goods

Tatoeba

警察拘捕了这个贼。

Jǐngchá jūbǔ le zhège qièzéi.

The police officers arrested the burglar.

Tatoeba

萨米因为偷被炒了鱿鱼。

Sà mǐ yīnwèi tōuqiè bèi chǎo le yóuyú.

Sami was fired from his job for stealing.

Tatoeba

男孩们私语,我知道他们准备做些什么。

Nánháimen qièqiè-sīyǔ, wǒ zhīdào tāmen zhǔnbèi zuò xiē shénme.

The boys were whispering; I knew they were up to something.

Tatoeba

我们走开的时候,房子被盗了。

Wǒmen zǒukāi de shíhou, fángzi bèi dàoqiè le.

Our house was robbed while we were away.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 窃 (qiè) mean in Chinese?
窃 (qiè) primarily means "to steal." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2067 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 窃 and 沏?
窃 (qiè) and 沏 (qī) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 穴 vs 氵 (same 切 component).
How many strokes does 窃 have?
窃 is written with 9 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 窃?
The radical associated with 窃 is 穴 (cave). This radical appears in many characters related to cave.
What are the components of 窃?
窃 is composed of: 穴 (semantic), 切 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱穴切 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 窃?
Common words with 窃 include: 盗窃 (dào qiè, "to steal"); 偷窃 (tōu qiè, "to steal"); 窃听器 (qiè tīng qì, "tapping device"); 窃听 (qiè tīng, "to eavesdrop"); 失窃 (shī qiè, "to lose by theft"). There are over 29 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 窃 (qiè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiè: 且 (and), 切 (to cut), 怯 (timid). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 窃 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 窃 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.