(xiàn): county

(xiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “county.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #877 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. county

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
lín xiànLin county in Henan
wàn xiànWanxian port city on the Changjiang or Yangtze river in Sichuan, renamed Wanzhou district in Chongqing municipality i...
shā xiànsee 沙縣區|沙县区[Sha1 xian4 Qu1]
hé xiànHe County or Hexian, a county in Ma'anshan City 馬鞍山市|马鞍山市[Ma3 an1 shan1 Shi4], Anhui
nán xiànNan County or Nanxian, a county in Yiyang City 益陽市|益阳市[Yi4 yang2 Shi4], Hunan
dào xiànDao County or Daoxian, a county in Yongzhou City 永州市[Yong3 zhou1 Shi4], Hunan
chéng xiànCheng County or Chengxian, a county in Longnan City 隴南市|陇南市[Long3 nan2 Shi4], Gansu
lǐ xiànLi County (Tibetan: li rdzong) in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture 阿壩藏族羌族自治州|阿坝藏族羌族自治州[A1 ba4 Zang4 zu2 ...
gāo xiànGao county in Yibin 宜賓|宜宾[Yi2 bin1], Sichuan
tōng xiànTong county in Beijing
dài xiànDai county in Xinzhou 忻州[Xin1 zhou1], Shanxi
xùn xiànXun County or Xunxian, a county in Hebi City 鶴壁市|鹤壁市[He4 bi4 Shi4], Henan
jīn xiànKing County
shì xiàntowns and counties
shàn xiànShan county in Heze 菏澤|菏泽[He2 ze2], Shandong
100
Total compounds
0
As first character
100
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 as the last, and 0 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.

jiā
0.58612 co-occurrences
0.5546,972 co-occurrences
yáng
0.54296,318 co-occurrences
xiāng
0.50860,252 co-occurrences
nìng
0.49851,552 co-occurrences
xiá
0.48344,346 co-occurrences
zhèn
0.47891,944 co-occurrences
nuò
0.47742,792 co-occurrences
chéng
0.475156,138 co-occurrences
zhī
0.467106,500 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

shén nài chuān xiànHSK 7+

Kanagawa prefecture, Japan

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

城是地方行政中心。

Xiàn chéng shì dìfāng xíngzhèng zhōngxīn.

The county town is the local administrative center.

中時新聞網Feb 2026

爱讲“客”推学校客语能力 扩大奖励对象

zhú xiàn ài jiǎng kè tuī xué jiào kè yǔ néng lì kuò dà jiǎng lì duì xiàng

Zhu County loves to speak "guests" and promote the school's Hakka language ability to expand the reward objects

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

嘉义选情黄家班两样情 嘉市根基稳固、嘉陷重整纷争

jiā yì xuǎn qíng huáng jiā bān liǎng yàng qíng jiā shì gēn jī wěn gù , jiā xiàn xiàn chóng zhěng fēn zhēng

Chiayi election situation Huang Jiaban two loves Jia City has a solid foundation, and Jia County is trapped in a reorganization dispute

百度新闻Feb 2026

千城百看中国·护航春运丨河北交通:智慧高速守护...

qiān chéng bǎi xiàn kàn zhōng guó hù háng chūn yùn 丨 hé běi jiāo tōng : zhì huì gāo sù shǒu hù . . .

Thousands of cities and counties look at China and escort the Spring Festival丨Hebei transportation: smart high-speed protection...

百度新闻Feb 2026

超标近2000倍 日本石川一处地下水检出高浓度有..

chāo biāo jìn bèi rì běn shí chuān xiàn yī chǔ dì xià shuǐ jiǎn chū gāo nóng dù yǒu . .

Groundwater in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, found to contain high concentrations of... Exceeding standards by nearly 2,000 times.

百度新闻Feb 2026

宁远城管局:禁燃禁放不松懈 守护平安祥和年

nìng yuǎn xiàn chéng guǎn jú jīn rán jīn fàng bù sōng xiè shǒu hù píng ān xiáng hé nián

Ningyuan County Urban Management Bureau: Maintaining Vigilance in Fireworks and Fireworks Ban Safeguarding a Peaceful and Harmonious New Year

Tatoeba

我在兵库立大学学习。

Wǒ zài Bīngkùxiàn lì dàxué xuéxí.

I study at the University of Hyogo.

Tatoeba

日本有多少个?

Rìběn yǒu duōshao gè xiàn?

How many prefectures are there in Japan?

Tatoeba

我去年夏天到访的是一个位于长野的小村落。

Wǒ qùnián xiàtiān dàofǎng de shì yī gèwèi yú Chángyěxiàn de xiǎo cūnluò.

The village which I visited last summer was a small one in Nagano Prefecture.

Tatoeba

其鄄城、东阿、范三处,赖荀彧、程昱二人设计相连,死守城郭。

Qí Juànchéng, Dōng'ē, fàn xiàn sān chǔ, lài Xún Yù, Chéng Yù èr rénshè jì xiānglián, sǐshǒu chéngguō.

At Juancheng, Dong'e, and Fan counties, thanks to the strategic planning of Xun Yu and Cheng Yu, the locations were connected, and the cities were defended to the death.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the private radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 县 (xiàn) mean in Chinese?
县 (xiàn) primarily means "county." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #877 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 县 have?
县 is written with 7 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 县?
The radical associated with 县 is 厶 (private). This radical appears in many characters related to private.
What are the components of 县?
县 is composed of: 且 (structural), 厶 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱且厶 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 县?
Common words with 县 include: 林县 (lín xiàn, "Lin county in Henan"); 万县 (wàn xiàn, "Wanxian port city on the Changjiang or Yangtze river in Sichuan, renamed Wanzhou district in Chongqing municipality i..."); 沙县 (shā xiàn, "see 沙縣區|沙县区[Sha1 xian4 Qu1]"); 和县 (hé xiàn, "He County or Hexian, a county in Ma'anshan City 馬鞍山市|马鞍山市[Ma3 an1 shan1 Shi4], Anhui"); 南县 (nán xiàn, "Nan County or Nanxian, a county in Yiyang City 益陽市|益阳市[Yi4 yang2 Shi4], Hunan"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 县 (xiàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiàn: 先 (beforehand), 鲜 (fresh), 闲 (idle, free), 咸 (all), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 县 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 县 and the traditional form is 縣.

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.