(): crack, crevice, gap or interval

() is a Chinese character meaning “crack.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #2341 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a crack 日 dividing two things 小; 阝 provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (mound) appears in many related characters such as (, (specifier) that), (dōu, all), (yuàn, courtyard).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. crack
  2. crevice
  3. gap or interval

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA crack 日 dividing two things 小; 阝 provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰阝⿱小⿱日小 (layout: left-right)

Components:structural

Stroke Order

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

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
fèng xìsmall crack
kòng xìcrack
jiàn xìinterval
liè xìgap
xià xìgap
xián xìhostility
chéng xìto seize an opportunity
kǒng xìpore (geology)
bái jū guò xìa white steed flits past a crack (idiom)
yún xì guāngcrepuscular rays
qì xìair vent
bīng xìcrevasse
chóu xìfeud
guān xìn sì xìlit. to look for holes, and observe gaps (idiom)
xì fèngaperture
18
Total compounds
6
As first character
89
As last character
6
As middle character

appears in 18 compound words: 6 as the first character, 89 as the last, and 6 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.

féng
0.6283,348 co-occurrences
xián
0.5293,576 co-occurrences
chèn
0.5151,654 co-occurrences
kǒng
0.5104,404 co-occurrences
liè
0.4913,252 co-occurrences
jiān
0.46610,722 co-occurrences
kōng
0.46110,362 co-occurrences
0.441504 co-occurrences
zhá
0.423420 co-occurrences
0.411720 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

báijūguòxìHSK 7+

swiftness of the lapse of time; fleeting of time; in the twinkling of an eye

phrase

Showing 1 of 2 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě xì zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "隙" is related to its radical.

EttodayFeb 2026

...东男情绪不稳坐初来桥边护栏 警耐心沟通趁拉回桥面

. . . dōng nán qíng xù bù wěn zuò chū lái qiáo biān hù lán jǐng nài xīn gōu tōng chèn xì lā huí qiáo miàn

... Dongnan was emotionally unstable, sitting on the guardrail by the bridge when he first came, and the police patiently communicated and took advantage of the opportunity to pull back the bridge deck

Tatoeba

请小心月台与车厢之间的空

Qǐng xiǎoxīn yuètái yǔ chēxiāng zhījiān de kòngxì.

Please mind the gap between the train and the platform.

Tatoeba

在伦敦地铁,上车时会有「注意间」提醒。

Zài Lúndūn dìtiě, shàngchē shí huì yǒu 「 zhùyì jiànxì 」 tíxǐng.

In the London underground there is a warning to "mind the gap" when boarding the train.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 隙 (xì) mean in Chinese?
隙 (xì) primarily means "crack." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2341 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 隙 have?
隙 is written with 12 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 隙?
The radical associated with 隙 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 隙?
隙 is composed of: 阝 (structural), undefined (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝⿱小⿱日小 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 隙?
Common words with 隙 include: 缝隙 (fèng xì, "small crack"); 空隙 (kòng xì, "crack"); 间隙 (jiàn xì, "interval"); 裂隙 (liè xì, "gap"); 罅隙 (xià xì, "gap"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 隙 (xì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xì: 吸 (to breathe), 西 (the West), 希 (to hope), 息 (breath), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 隙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 隙 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.