(shè): (bound form) to take in, to absorb, to assimilate, to capture (video or still images), (literary) to conserve (one's health)

(shè) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to take in.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1395 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to take in
  2. to absorb
  3. to assimilate
  4. to capture (video or still images)
  5. (literary) to conserve (one's health)

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌聂 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbpāi shèto take (a picture)5
nounshè xiàng tóuwebcam6
verbshè yǐngto take a photograph5
verbshè xiàngto videotape6
measureshè shì dù°C (degrees Celsius)4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shè xiàng jīvideo camera
shè yǐng shīphotographer
shè yǐng jī(old) camera
shè yǐng péngfilm studio
shè rùto take in
shè shìCelsius
shè qǔto absorb (nutrients etc)
shè zhìto produce (a TV show etc)
shè zhèng wángregent
shè yǐng jiāphotographer
shè zhèngto act as regent
shè lùto film
shè shíto consume
lì tǐ shè xiàng jīstereoscopic camera
dìng shí shè yǐngtime-lapse photography
46
Total compounds
48
As first character
13
As last character
39
As middle character

appears in 46 compound words: 48 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 39 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.

pāi
0.772180,381 co-occurrences
yǐng
0.54697,286 co-occurrences
xiàng
0.48930,013 co-occurrences
tóu
0.47316,284 co-occurrences
jìng
0.4524,560 co-occurrences
shī
0.44616,854 co-occurrences
péng
0.4271,920 co-occurrences
shì
0.40310,493 co-occurrences
0.39016,896 co-occurrences
diàn
0.38814,706 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈着孩子的手,慢慢地过马路。

mā mā shè zhe hái zǐ de shǒu , màn màn dì guò mǎ lù .

Mom held her child's hand as they slowly crossed the street.

99 健康网Mar 2026

“老年人吃粗粮越多越好”不科学,合理入才是健康关键

lǎo nián rén chī cū liáng yuè duō yuè hǎo bù kē xué , gě lǐ shè rù cái shì jiàn kāng guān jiàn

"The more whole grains the elderly eat, the better" is unscientific, and reasonable intake is the key to health

NewtalkFeb 2026

...园压轴登场 “大港青年防卫队”结合日本特美学

. . . yuán yā zhóu dēng chǎng dà gǎng qīng nián fáng wèi duì jié gě rì běn tè shè měi xué

... The grand finale of the park "Dagang Youth Defense Force" combined with Japanese tokusatsu aesthetics

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

藏学学者拍纪录片记录西藏阿里地区传统文化

zàng xué xué zhě pāi shè jì lù piàn jì lù xī zàng ā lǐ dì qū chuán tǒng wén huà

Tibetan scholars filmed documentaries documenting the traditional culture of the Ali region of Tibet

LtnFeb 2026

韩国瑜吁立院报告要考虑总统护腺 牛煦庭:降低紧张气氛

hán guó 瑜 xū lì yuàn bào gào yāo kǎo lǜ zǒng tǒng shè hù xiàn niú 煦 tíng : jiàng dī jǐn zhāng qì fēn

Han Yu called on the Legislative Yuan to consider the president's prostate Niu Xuting: Reduce tension

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

韩国瑜关心赖总统护腺 庄瑞雄称“很有哏”:朝野适度降温不...

hán guó 瑜 guān xīn lài zǒng tǒng shè hù xiàn zhuāng ruì xióng chèn hěn yǒu 哏 : cháo yě shì dù jiàng wēn bù . . .

Han Kuo-yu cares about President Lai's prostate Zhuang Ruixiong said that it is "very good": the government and the opposition have cooled down moderately...

Tatoeba

汤姆没有注意到监控像头。

Tāngmǔ méiyǒu zhùyì dào jiānkòng shèxiàngtóu.

Tom didn't notice the surveillance camera.

Tatoeba

那个影师是哪国人?

Nàge shèyǐngshī shì nǎ guórén?

What's the nationality of that cameraman over there?

Tatoeba

水在氏100度沸腾。

Shuǐ zài Shèshì 100 dù fèiténg.

Water boils at 100 degrees.

Tatoeba

氏零度时水会结冰,对吧?

Shèshì língdù shí shuǐ huì jiébīng, duì ba?

Water will freeze at zero Celsius, right?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 摄 (shè) mean in Chinese?
摄 (shè) primarily means "(bound form) to take in." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1395 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 摄 have?
摄 is written with 13 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 摄?
The radical associated with 摄 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 摄?
摄 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 聂 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌聂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 摄?
Common words with 摄 include: 拍摄 (pāi shè, "to take (a picture)"); 摄像机 (shè xiàng jī, "video camera"); 摄影师 (shè yǐng shī, "photographer"); 摄像头 (shè xiàng tóu, "webcam"); 摄影 (shè yǐng, "to take a photograph"). There are over 46 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 摄 (shè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shè: 慑 (Taiwan pr.), 奢 (extravagant), 蛇 (snake), 舍 (to give up), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 摄 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 摄 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.