徙 (xǐ): (literary) to change one's residence

徙 (xǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) to change one's residence.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彳 (structural) and 歨 (structural). It ranks #3035 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 徙 to step 彳 out on a long journey 歨. Its radical form 彳 (step) appears in many related characters such as 很 (hěn, very), 得 (dé, to obtain), 律 (lǜ, law).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 彳 step11 strokesFrequency #3035彳 structural歨 structural

Definitions

  1. (literary) to change one's residence

Etymology & Origin

徙

ideographicTo step 彳 out on a long journey 歨

Decomposition: ⿰彳歨 (layout: left-right)

Components:彳structural歨structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
迁徙qiān xǐto migrate
民族大迁徙mín zú dà qiān xǐgreat migration of peoples
曲突徙薪qū tū xǐ xīnlit. to bend the chimney and remove the firewood (to prevent fire) (idiom)
转徙zhuǎn xǐto migrate
4
Total compounds
0
As first character
75
As last character
25
As middle character

徙 appears in 4 compound words: 0 as the first character, 75 as the last, and 25 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 徙 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

迁qiān
0.66721,516 co-occurrences
鸟niǎo
0.4361,446 co-occurrences
置zhì
0.4025,814 co-occurrences
居jū
0.3894,572 co-occurrences
封fēng
0.3883,288 co-occurrences
辗niǎn
0.37996 co-occurrences
冬dōng
0.3661,182 co-occurrences
至zhì
0.3356,798 co-occurrences
稽jī
0.331180 co-occurrences
禽qín
0.329132 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

曲突徙薪qūtūxǐxīnHSK 7+

to take preventive measures; to take precautions (to prevent trouble from happening)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好徙字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo xǐ zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhèng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "徙" correctly, you need to follow the correct stroke order.

Am730Mar 2026

日本奈良鹿相继攀山长征迁徙到大阪 专家拆解鹿群出走原因(有片)

rì běn nài liáng lù xiāng jì pān shān cháng zhēng qiān xǐ dào dà 阪 zhuān jiā chāi jiě lù qún chū zǒu yuán yīn ( yǒu piàn )

Deer from Nara, Japan, Have Migrated to Osaka in a Long Journey Up the Mountains; Experts Analyze the Reasons Behind the Herd's Exodus (Video Included)

Character Family

彳 Radical Family — Characters sharing the step radical

彼bǐ彻chè待dài得dé德dé很hěn律lǜ往wǎng微wēi征zhēng

Related Characters

很hěn得dé律lǜ往wǎng待dài彻chè微wēi征zhēng彼bǐ德dé

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 徙 (xǐ) mean in Chinese?
徙 (xǐ) primarily means "(literary) to change one's residence." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3035 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 徙 have?
徙 is written with 11 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 徙?
The radical associated with 徙 is 彳 (step). This radical appears in many characters related to step.
What are the components of 徙?
徙 is composed of: 彳 (structural), 歨 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰彳歨 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 徙?
Common words with 徙 include: 迁徙 (qiān xǐ, "to migrate"); 民族大迁徙 (mín zú dà qiān xǐ, "great migration of peoples"); 曲突徙薪 (qū tū xǐ xīn, "lit. to bend the chimney and remove the firewood (to prevent fire) (idiom)"); 转徙 (zhuǎn xǐ, "to migrate"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
Is 徙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 徙 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 徙 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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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.