(xiān): to lift (a lid), to rock, to convulse

(xiān) is a Chinese character meaning “to lift (a lid).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2385 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to lift (a lid)
  2. to rock
  3. to convulse

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌欣 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
xiān qǐto lift
xiān fānto turn sth over
xiān kāito lift open
xiān tiān jiē dìearth-shattering
xiān bèi chēhatchback
xiān fēng gǔ làngto raise a storm
xiān dòngto stir
xiān diàoto remove
xiān téngto surge up
xiān yǒngto seethe
10
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 10 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.

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.

0.56023,160 co-occurrences
bèi
0.4904,260 co-occurrences
qún
0.431282 co-occurrences
bǎi
0.43111 co-occurrences
0.42812 co-occurrences
fān
0.4191,428 co-occurrences
cháo
0.4191,134 co-occurrences
lián
0.38342 co-occurrences
xīng
0.37790 co-occurrences
le
0.3586,900 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

xiān fēng gǔ làngHSK 7+

to raise a storm; to stir up trouble; to instigate

phrase
xiān tiān jiē dìHSK 7+

earth-shattering

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

起袖子,开始认真地打扫房间。

tā xiān qǐ xiù zǐ , kāi shǐ rèn zhēn dì dǎ sǎo fáng jiān .

He rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning the room thoroughly.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...只剩穷人与8+9?私校门槛曝光 两派网友论战

. . . zhī shèng qióng rén yǔ 8 9 ? sī jiào mén jiàn pù guāng liǎng pài wǎng yǒu xiān lùn zhàn

... Only the poor and 8+9? The threshold of private schools was exposed, and the two factions of netizens started a debate

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

黄侦琳酒驾不退选?Cheap她底狠酸:这女士还挺戒严

huáng zhēn 琳 jiǔ jià bù tuì xuǎn ? C h e a p xiān tā de hěn suān : zhè nǚ shì hái tǐng jiè yán

Huang Jianlin drunk driving does not withdraw from the election? Cheap lifted her bottom and soured: This lady is quite under martial law

工商時報Feb 2026

...ouse 3/11起快闪晶华!4大品项再韩流食尚风暴

. . . o u s e 3 1 1 qǐ kuài shǎn jīng huá ! 4 dà pǐn xiàng zài xiān hán liú shí shàng fēng bào

... ouse flash mob Jinghua from 3/11! 4 major items have set off a storm of Korean Wave food fashion

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

娱乐抢先看/始源8字贴文挺尹锡悦论战、逸祥探望山猪父母惹泪

yú lè qiǎng xiān kàn shǐ yuán 8 zì tiē wén tǐng 尹 xī yuè xiān lùn zhàn , yì xiáng tàn wàng shān zhū fù mǔ rě lèi

Entertainment sneak peek/Siyuan 8-word post supports Yin Xiyue's debate, and Yixiang's visit to the parents of the wild boar brings tears

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

陆玻纤布业 再涨价潮

lù bō qiàn bù yè zài xiān zhǎng jià cháo

The land glass fiber fabric industry has set off another wave of price increases

Tatoeba

微风在湖面上起了一丝丝涟漪。

Wēifēng zài hú miàn shàng xiānqǐ le yī sī sī liányī.

A gentle wind made ripples on the surface of the pond.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 掀 (xiān) mean in Chinese?
掀 (xiān) primarily means "to lift (a lid)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2385 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 掀 have?
掀 is written with 11 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 掀?
The radical associated with 掀 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 掀?
掀 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 欣 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌欣 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 掀?
Common words with 掀 include: 掀起 (xiān qǐ, "to lift"); 掀翻 (xiān fān, "to turn sth over"); 掀开 (xiān kāi, "to lift open"); 掀天揭地 (xiān tiān jiē dì, "earth-shattering"); 掀背车 (xiān bèi chē, "hatchback"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 掀 (xiān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiān: 先 (beforehand), 鲜 (fresh), 闲 (idle, free), 咸 (all), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 掀 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 掀 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.