娴 (xián): elegant, refined, to be skilled at

娴 (xián) is a Chinese character meaning “elegant.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 闲 (phonetic). It ranks #3662 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 娴 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 她 (tā, she), 好 (hǎo, good).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. elegant
  2. refined
  3. to be skilled at

Etymology & Origin

娴

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女闲 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
娴熟adjectivexián shúadept
娴静adjectivexián jìnggentle and refined
娴雅adjectivexián yǎrefined
娴淑xián shūladylike
4
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

娴 appears in 4 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

该剧编剧兼制片人高小娴介绍,选角时首先考虑演员与角色的适配度和表演能力。

gāi jù biān jù jiān zhì piàn rén gāo xiǎo xián jiè shào , xuǎn jiǎo shí shǒu xiān kǎo lǜ yǎn yuán yǔ jiǎo sè de shì pèi dù hé biǎo yǎn néng lì .

Gao Xiaoxian, the show’s screenwriter and producer, explained that when casting, the primary considerations were how well the actors matched their roles and their acting abilities.

少数派Aug 2026

专辑加重了嘻哈的比例,突显卡西恩对说唱的娴熟驾驭力。

zhuān jí jiā chóng le 嘻 hā de bǐ lì , tū xiǎn kǎ xī ēn duì shuō chàng de xián shú jià yù lì .

The album features a greater emphasis on hip-hop, highlighting Cassius's mastery of rap.

中国新闻网·体育Jun 2026

旁边的摔马跤和陶力棒比赛同样精彩,选手们闪转腾挪,技巧娴熟。

páng biān de shuāi mǎ jiāo hé táo lì bàng bǐ sài tóng yàng jīng cǎi , xuǎn shǒu men shǎn zhuǎn téng nuó , jì qiǎo xián shú .

The horse-tossing and clay-stick competitions taking place nearby were just as thrilling, with the competitors darting and weaving with great skill.

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

许多针对老年人的保健品销售,正是娴熟操纵这种心理密码的高手。

xǔ duō zhēn duì lǎo nián rén de bǎo jiàn pǐn xiāo shòu , zhèng shì xián shú cāo zòng zhè zhǒng xīn lǐ mì mǎ de gāo shǒu .

Many sellers of health supplements targeting the elderly are experts at skillfully manipulating this psychological mechanism.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

它要培养的,究竟是工具的娴熟使用者,还是无法被工具替代的、有“灵魂”的创作者?

tā yào péi yǎng de , jiū jìng shì gōng jù de xián shú shǐ yòng zhě , hái shì wú fǎ bèi gōng jù tì dài de , yǒu líng hún de chuàng zuò zhě ?

Is it meant to cultivate skilled users of tools, or creators with a “soul” who cannot be replaced by tools?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 娴 (xián) mean in Chinese?
娴 (xián) primarily means "elegant." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3662 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 娴 have?
娴 is written with 10 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 娴?
The radical associated with 娴 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 娴?
娴 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 闲 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女闲 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 娴?
Common words with 娴 include: 娴熟 (xián shú, "adept"); 娴静 (xián jìng, "gentle and refined"); 娴雅 (xián yǎ, "refined"); 娴淑 (xián shū, "ladylike"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
Is 娴 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 娴 and the traditional form is 嫺.

Practice writing 娴 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.