歇 (xiē): to rest, to take a break, to stop

歇 (xiē) is a Chinese character meaning “to rest.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 曷 (phonetic) and 欠 (semantic). It ranks #1811 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 歇 yawn. Its radical form 欠 (yawn) appears in many related characters such as 次 (cì, next in sequence), 欢 (huān, hubbub), 歌 (gē, song).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to rest
  2. to take a break
  3. to stop

Etymology & Origin

歇

pictophoneticyawn

Decomposition: ⿰曷欠 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
马歇尔proper-nounmǎ xiē ěrMarshall (name)
米歇尔proper-nounmǐ xiē ěrMichel or Mitchell (name)
歇斯底里nounxiē sī dǐ lǐhysteria (loanword)
间歇verbjiàn xiēto stop in the middle of sth
停歇verbtíng xiēto stop for a rest
歇业verbxiē yèto close down (temporarily or permanently)
歇息verbxiē xito have a rest
歇脚verbxiē jiǎoto stop on the way for a rest
安歇verbān xiēto go to bed
歇手verbxiē shǒuto rest
歇后语nounxiē hòu yǔanapodoton (a saying in which the second part, uttered after a pause or totally left out, is the intended meaning of ...
冬歇期dōng xiē qīwinter break
密歇根大学mì xiē gēn dà xuéUniversity of Michigan
歇了吧xiē le ba(dialect) give me a break!
关店歇业guān diàn xiē yèto close up shop and cease business temporarily
28
Total compounds
54
As first character
18
As last character
29
As middle character

歇 appears in 28 compound words: 54 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 29 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 歇 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

檐yán
0.6101,638 co-occurrences
尔ěr
0.51811,600 co-occurrences
顶dǐng
0.5062,076 co-occurrences
絮xù
0.489368 co-occurrences
米mǐ
0.4849,076 co-occurrences
密mì
0.4534,802 co-occurrences
吕lǚ
0.453756 co-occurrences
根gēn
0.4454,838 co-occurrences
马mǎ
0.4363,582 co-occurrences
州zhōu
0.3942,884 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

密歇根湖Mìxiēgēn HúHSK 6+

Lake Michigan

歇斯底里xiēsīdǐlǐHSK 7+

hysteria; hysterics; excessive or uncontrollable emotion; hysterical; frenzied; frantic

nounadjective

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

歇字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

xiē zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "歇" has different usages in different contexts.

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

特斯拉与LG新能源将在密歇根州投资43亿美元建电池厂

tè sī lā yǔ L G xīn néng yuán jiāng zài mì xiē gēn zhōu tóu zī 4 3 yì měi yuán jiàn diàn chí hǎn

Tesla and LG Energy Solution will invest $4.3 billion to build a battery factory in Michigan

東森新聞Feb 2026

连锁美甲美容店传歇业 400人受害金额逾200万

lián suǒ měi jiǎ měi róng diàn chuán xiē yè 4 0 0 rén shòu hài jīn é yú 2 0 0 wàn

The chain nail salon is said to have closed its business, and 400 people have suffered more than 2 million yuan

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

九州博弈瓦解赌风未歇 高雄博弈机房拥枪2月洗钱上亿

jiǔ zhōu bó yì wǎ jiě dǔ fēng wèi xiē gāo xióng bó yì jī fáng yōng qiāng 2 yuè xǐ qián shàng yì

The collapse of the game in Kyushu has not stopped, and the Kaohsiung gaming computer room has guns and laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in February

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

(新春走基层)山西上党:菌棒管护不停歇 香菇飘香庆丰年

( xīn chūn zǒu jī céng ) shān xī shàng dǎng : jūn bàng guǎn hù bù tíng xiē xiāng gū piāo xiāng qìng fēng nián

(New Year at the grassroots level) Shangdang, Shanxi: The management and protection of mushroom sticks do not stop, and the fragrance of shiitake mushrooms celebrates the harvest year

RfiFeb 2026

AI与关税忧虑暂歇 欧股收盘涨跌互见

A I yǔ guān shuì yōu lǜ zàn xiē ōu gǔ shōu pán zhǎng diē hù jiàn

AI and tariff concerns pause European stocks closed mixed

Tatoeba

“迈克尔”是一个男名,但是“米歇尔”是一个女名。

"Màikè'ěr " shì yī gè nán míng, dànshì "Mǐxiē'ěr " shì yī gè nǚ míng.

"Michael" is a man's name, but "Michelle" is a woman's name.

Tatoeba

你看起来累了。你该歇息一会儿了。

Nǐ kànqǐlai lèi le. Nǐ gāi xiēxi yīhuìr le.

You look tired. You should rest a little.

Tatoeba

因为天气很热,所以我就走到阴凉的地方歇了一会儿。

Yīnwèi tiānqì hěn rè, suǒyǐ wǒ jiù zǒu dào yīnliáng de dìfang xiē le yīhuìr.

It was so hot that I got into the shade and took a rest.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 欠 (yawn) component

欠 Radical Family — Characters sharing the yawn radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 歇 (xiē) mean in Chinese?
歇 (xiē) primarily means "to rest." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1811 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 歇 and 喝?
歇 (xiē) and 喝 (hē) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 欠 vs 口 (same 曷 component).
How many strokes does 歇 have?
歇 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 歇?
The radical associated with 歇 is 欠 (yawn). This radical appears in many characters related to yawn.
What are the components of 歇?
歇 is composed of: 曷 (phonetic), 欠 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰曷欠 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 歇?
Common words with 歇 include: 马歇尔 (mǎ xiē ěr, "Marshall (name)"); 米歇尔 (mǐ xiē ěr, "Michel or Mitchell (name)"); 歇斯底里 (xiē sī dǐ lǐ, "hysteria (loanword)"); 间歇 (jiàn xiē, "to stop in the middle of sth"); 停歇 (tíng xiē, "to stop for a rest"). There are over 28 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 歇 (xiē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiē: 些 (classifier indicating a small amount or small number greater than 1: some, a few, several), 写 (to write), 血 (blood). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 歇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 歇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 歇 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.