(xiá): narrow, narrow-minded

(xiá) is a Chinese character meaning “narrow.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1989 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, dog. Its radical form (dog) appears in many related characters such as (gǒu, dog), (māo, cat (CL:隻|只[zhi1])), (zhuàng, (bound form) form).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. narrow
  2. narrow-minded

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticdog

Decomposition: ⿰犭夹 (layout: left-right)

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
xiá zhǎinarrow
xiá xiǎonarrow
xiá ài(of a path etc) narrow
piān xiáprejudiced
xiá lù xiāng fénglit. to meet face to face on a narrow path (idiom)
xiá chánglong and narrow
xiá yìnarrow sense
xiá yì xiāng duì lùnspecial relativity
xiá lùgorge
dì xiá rén chóu(idiom) small and densely populated
xīn xiōng xiá zhǎi(idiom) narrow-minded
cù xiá guǐmischievous fellow
shù xiánarrow (of waterway)
xīn xiōng xiá àinarrow
xiá gǔglen
20
Total compounds
50
As first character
25
As last character
25
As middle character

appears in 20 compound words: 50 as the first character, 25 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

zhǎi
0.75414,961 co-occurrences
ài
0.6322,286 co-occurrences
féng
0.5631,554 co-occurrences
0.5209,186 co-occurrences
tǒng
0.438450 co-occurrences
dǒu
0.427252 co-occurrences
qiào
0.422210 co-occurrences
cháng
0.4207,476 co-occurrences
bàn
0.410270 co-occurrences
wān
0.409270 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

xiálùxiāngféngHSK 7+

to come into unavoidable confrontation

phrase
xīnxiōngxiázhǎiHSK 7+

small-minded; intolerant; selfish; petty

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由9笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

xiá zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "narrow" consists of nine strokes, with a remarkably ingenious structure.

EttodayApr 2026

中年男突头晕、黑蒙...就医发现颈动脉窄 医师提醒中风风险高

zhōng nián nán tū tóu yūn , hēi méng . . . jiù yī fā xiàn jǐng dòng mài xiá zhǎi yī shī tí xǐng zhōng fēng fēng xiǎn gāo

Tatoeba

这个角度会过于窄。

Zhège jiǎodù huì guòyú xiázhǎi.

The angle would be too narrow.

Tatoeba

他在一条窄的道路上走。

Tā zài yī tiáo xiázhǎi de dàolù shàng zǒu.

The man is hiking on a narrow path.

Tatoeba

别让隘的人让你相信你的梦想过于宏大。

Bié ràng xiá'ài de rén ràng nǐ xiāngxìn nǐ de mèngxiǎng guòyú hóngdà.

Don't let narrow-minded people convince you that your dreams are too big.

Tatoeba

「这么小的房间要三十元实在是太贵了。」他想。

「 zhème xiáxiǎo de fángjiān yào sānshí yuán shízài shì tài guì le.」 tā xiǎng.

"Thirty dollars is a lot for that small room," he thought.

Tatoeba

他醒了过来,发现自己正躺在一间不见天日的小囚室里。

Tā xǐng le guòlai, fāxiàn zìjǐ zhèng tǎng zài yī jiān bùjiàntiānrì de xiáxiǎo qiú shì lǐ.

When he came to he found himself lying in a small, windowless cell.

Tatoeba

阁楼是一个长的低矮房间,光线昏暗,弥漫着雪松的香气。

Gélóu shì yī gè xiácháng de dī'ǎi fángjiān, guāngxiàn hūn'àn, mímàn zhe xuěsōng de xiāngqì.

The attic was a long, low-ceilinged room, dark and fragrant with the odor of the cedar.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiá

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 狭 (xiá) mean in Chinese?
狭 (xiá) primarily means "narrow." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1989 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 狭 and 宽?
狭 (xiá) and 宽 (kuān) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 狭 (narrow) vs 宽 (wide).
How many strokes does 狭 have?
狭 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 狭?
The radical associated with 狭 is 犭 (dog). This radical appears in many characters related to dog.
What are the components of 狭?
狭 is composed of: 犭 (semantic), 夹 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰犭夹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 狭?
Common words with 狭 include: 狭窄 (xiá zhǎi, "narrow"); 狭小 (xiá xiǎo, "narrow"); 狭隘 (xiá ài, "(of a path etc) narrow"); 偏狭 (piān xiá, "prejudiced"); 狭路相逢 (xiá lù xiāng féng, "lit. to meet face to face on a narrow path (idiom)"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 狭 (xiá)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiá: 侠 (knight-errant), 厦 (abbr. for Xiamen or Amoy 廈門|厦门, Fujian), 虾 (shrimp), 瞎 (blind), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 狭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 狭 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.