懈 (xiè): lax, negligent

懈 (xiè) is a Chinese character meaning “lax.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 忄 (semantic) and 解 (phonetic). It ranks #2555 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 懈 heart. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 忄 heart16 strokesFrequency #2555忄 semantic解 phonetic

Definitions

  1. lax
  2. negligent

Etymology & Origin

懈

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿰忄解 (layout: left-right)

Components:忄semantic解phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
无懈可击wú xiè kě jī(idiom) impossible to fault
坚持不懈jiān chí bù xiè(idiom) to persevere unremittingly
松懈sōng xièto relax
不懈bù xièuntiring
懈怠xiè dàislack
懈气xiè qìto slacken off
夙夜匪懈sù yè fěi xièto work from morning to night (idiom)
不懈怠bù xiè dàiuntiring
懈惰xiè duòslack
懈弛xiè chíslack (discipline)
10
Total compounds
40
As first character
40
As last character
20
As middle character

懈 appears in 10 compound words: 40 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 20 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 懈 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

怠dài
0.7362,508 co-occurrences
努nǔ
0.5492,838 co-occurrences
坚jiān
0.483912 co-occurrences
弛chí
0.462114 co-occurrences
匪fěi
0.450336 co-occurrences
不bù
0.4379,042 co-occurrences
稍shāo
0.425384 co-occurrences
痹bì
0.42536 co-occurrences
松sōng
0.4211,173 co-occurrences
勿wù
0.414150 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

坚持不懈jiānchíbùxièHSK 7+

to persevere; to keep going until the end

phrase
无懈可击wúxièkějīHSK 7+

unassailable; unbeatable; incontrovertible; unimpeachable

phrase
夙夜匪懈sùyèfěixièHSK 7+

to work from morning to night

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

看到孩子的进步，父母懈中十分欣慰。

kàn dào hái zǐ de jìn bù , fù mǔ xiè zhōng shí fēn xīn wèi .

Seeing their child's progress, the parents felt deeply gratified.

StheadlineMar 2026

...获激赞:越有钱越有家教 55岁真实状态无懈可击

. . . huò jī zàn : yuè yǒu qián yuè yǒu jiā jiào 5 5 suì zhēn shí zhuàng tài wú xiè kě jī

東森新聞Feb 2026

收假别松懈慎防诺罗、肠病毒、B流 防疫重点一次看

shōu jiǎ bié sōng xiè shèn fáng nuò luó , cháng bìng dú , B liú fáng yì chóng diǎn yī cì kàn

Don't be slacker when taking leave, be cautious of nolo, enterovirus, and influenza B

百度新闻Feb 2026

宁远县城管局: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: Ban burning and banning do not slack off to protect a safe and peaceful year

Character Family

忄 Radical Family — Characters sharing the heart radical

怖bù惭cán惨cǎn憧chōng悴cuì惮dàn悼dào惦diàn懂dǒng惰duò

Related Characters

忙máng快kuài怎zěn息xī您nín慢màn必bì忽hū态tài怕pà

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiè

蟹xiè些xiē歇xiē协xié鞋xié写xiě谢xiè血xiě叶xié页xié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 懈 (xiè) mean in Chinese?
懈 (xiè) primarily means "lax." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2555 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 懈 have?
懈 is written with 16 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 懈?
The radical associated with 懈 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 懈?
懈 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), 解 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄解 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 懈?
Common words with 懈 include: 无懈可击 (wú xiè kě jī, "(idiom) impossible to fault"); 坚持不懈 (jiān chí bù xiè, "(idiom) to persevere unremittingly"); 松懈 (sōng xiè, "to relax"); 不懈 (bù xiè, "untiring"); 懈怠 (xiè dài, "slack"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 懈 (xiè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiè: 蟹 (crab), 些 (classifier indicating a small amount or small number greater than 1: some, a few, several), 歇 (to rest), 协 (to cooperate), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 懈 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 懈 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 懈 with real-time feedback

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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.