暇 (xiá): leisure

暇 (xiá) is a Chinese character meaning “leisure.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (semantic) and 叚 (phonetic). It ranks #2926 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 暇 sun. Its radical form 日 (sun) appears in many related characters such as 日 (rì, sun, day), 时 (shí, time, hour), 明 (míng, bright, tomorrow).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. leisure

Etymology & Origin

暇

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿰日叚 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
无暇wú xiátoo busy
闲暇nounxián xiáleisure
应接不暇yìng jiē bù xiámore than one can attend to (idiom)
自顾不暇phrasezì gù bù xiá(idiom) to have one's hands full managing one's own affairs
空暇nounkòng xiáidle
目不暇给phrasemù bù xiá jǐlit. the eye cannot take it all in (idiom)
好整以暇phrasehào zhěng yǐ xiáto be calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos or at a busy time (idiom)
目不暇接mù bù xiá jiēlit. too much for the eye to take in (idiom)
不暇bù xiáto have no time (for sth)
日无暇晷rì wú xiá guǐno time to spare (idiom)
10
Total compounds
0
As first character
70
As last character
30
As middle character

暇 appears in 10 compound words: 0 as the first character, 70 as the last, and 30 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

好整以暇hàozhěngyǐxiá

remain calm and composed while handling pressing affairs; take things easy

phrase
目不暇给mùbùxiájǐ

so many things come into sight that the eyes are kept fully occupied

phrase
目不暇接mù bù xiá jiē

lit. too much for the eye to take in (idiom); a feast for the eyes

phrase
应接不暇yìng jiē bù xiá

more than one can attend to (idiom); deluged (with inquiries etc); overwhelmed (by the beauty of the scenery)

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing 暇.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

也有家长买给孩子,想着闲暇时,孩子可以挂一挂、抻一抻。

yě yǒu jiā cháng mǎi gěi hái zǐ , xiǎng zhe xián xiá shí , hái zǐ kě yǐ guà yī guà , 抻 yī 抻 .

Some parents also buy them for their children, thinking that their kids can hang them up and stretch them out in their free time.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

虽然时间有些紧,但我几乎每走完一段台阶就会停下来,眼前铺展的景致,美得令人目不暇接。

suī rán shí jiān yǒu xiē jǐn , dàn wǒ jǐ hū měi zǒu wán yī duàn tái jiē jiù huì tíng xià lái , yǎn qián pù zhǎn de jǐng zhì , měi dé lìng rén mù bù xiá jiē .

Although time was a bit tight, I stopped almost every time I reached the top of a flight of stairs—the scenery unfolding before me was so breathtakingly beautiful that I couldn’t take it all in.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

在北京工作的樊雨欣,日常身处快节奏的都市生活,闲暇之余,来到了李娟笔下的新疆阿勒泰。

zài běi jīng gōng zuò de 樊 yǔ xīn , rì cháng shēn chǔ kuài jié zòu de dōu shì shēng huó , xián xiá zhī yú , lái dào le lǐ juān bǐ xià de xīn jiāng ā lè tài .

Fan Yuxin, who works in Beijing, leads a fast-paced urban life on a daily basis. In her spare time, she finds herself in the Altay region of Xinjiang as depicted by Li Juan.

少数派Jul 2026

每天超快的工作节奏好处是经验积累飞速提升,副作用就是毫无轻松闲暇可言。

měi tiān chāo kuài de gōng zuò jié zòu hǎo chǔ shì jīng yàn jī lèi fēi sù tí shēng , fù zuò yòng jiù shì háo wú qīng sōng xián xiá kě yán .

The upside of such a fast-paced work schedule every day is that you gain experience at an incredible rate; the downside is that there’s absolutely no time to relax or take it easy.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

赵梓汝:《几暇怡情——干隆朝君臣书画唱和》,《美术大观》。

zhào 梓 rǔ : jǐ xiá yí qíng — — gān lóng cháo jūn chén shū huà chàng hé , měi shù dà guān .

Zhao Ziru: “Leisurely Pleasures: Calligraphy and Painting Exchanges Between the Emperor and His Ministers During the Qianlong Reign,” *Fine Arts Panorama*.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 日 (sun) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiá

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 暇 (xiá) mean in Chinese?
暇 (xiá) primarily means "leisure." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2926 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 暇 have?
暇 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 暇?
The radical associated with 暇 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 暇?
暇 is composed of: 日 (semantic), 叚 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰日叚 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 暇?
Common words with 暇 include: 无暇 (wú xiá, "too busy"); 闲暇 (xián xiá, "leisure"); 应接不暇 (yìng jiē bù xiá, "more than one can attend to (idiom)"); 自顾不暇 (zì gù bù xiá, "(idiom) to have one's hands full managing one's own affairs"); 空暇 (kòng xiá, "idle"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 暇 (xiá)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiá: 霞 (rosy clouds), 瑕 (blemish). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 暇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 暇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 暇 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.