(xié): (bound form) to clasp under the arm, (bound form) to coerce, (bound form) to harbor (resentment etc)

(xié) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to clasp under the arm.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2641 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, wedged 夹 in one's arms 扌; 夹 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to clasp under the arm
  2. (bound form) to coerce
  3. (bound form) to harbor (resentment etc)

Etymology & Origin

ideographicWedged 夹 in one's arms 扌; 夹 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰扌夹 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
xié chíto seize (sb) by the arms
yāo xiéto threaten
xié zhìto exploit sb's point of weakness to force them to do one's bidding
xié tiān zǐ yǐ lìng tiān xià(expr.) hold the feudal overlord and you control the whole country
xié tiān zǐ yǐ lìng zhū hóu(expr.) hold the feudal overlord and you control his vassals
xié xì ná cūto provoke
xié dàito carry along
xié yuànto hold a grudge
guǒ xiéto sweep along
9
Total compounds
78
As first character
22
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 9 compound words: 78 as the first character, 22 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.

guǒ
0.550600 co-occurrences
0.512108 co-occurrences
chí
0.4433,048 co-occurrences
zhà
0.42196 co-occurrences
0.40854 co-occurrences
0.380450 co-occurrences
yāo
0.3732,190 co-occurrences
wàng
0.37266 co-occurrences
jiān
0.37090 co-occurrences
yuàn
0.36090 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

xié xì ná cūHSK 7+

to provoke

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

起袖子,开始认真地打扫房间。

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

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

TvbsApr 2026

影音/伊朗海峡自重! 无视川普48hr通牒 与美互...

yǐng yīn yī lǎng xié hǎi xiá zì chóng ! wú shì chuān pǔ 4 8 h r tōng 牒 yǔ měi hù . . .

三立新聞網Mar 2026

阳光女子票房魅力 “兰佩CP”嗨翻东浪

xié yáng guāng nǚ zǐ piào fáng mèi lì lán pèi C P 嗨 fān dōng làng

Riding on the Box Office Success of "Sunshine Girl," the "Lanpei Couple" Wows the East Wave Festival

Tatoeba

他把一个包裹在腋下。

Tā bǎ yī gè bāoguǒ jiā zài yèxià.

He held a package under his arm.

Tatoeba

她把箱子在手臂下。

Tā bǎ xiāngzi jiā zài shǒubì xià.

She carried the box under her arm.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 挟 (xié) mean in Chinese?
挟 (xié) primarily means "(bound form) to clasp under the arm." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2641 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 挟 have?
挟 is written with 9 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 挟?
The radical associated with 挟 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 挟?
挟 is composed of: 扌 (structural), 夹 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌夹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 挟?
Common words with 挟 include: 挟持 (xié chí, "to seize (sb) by the arms"); 要挟 (yāo xié, "to threaten"); 挟制 (xié zhì, "to exploit sb's point of weakness to force them to do one's bidding"); 挟天子以令天下 (xié tiān zǐ yǐ lìng tiān xià, "(expr.) hold the feudal overlord and you control the whole country"); 挟天子以令诸侯 (xié tiān zǐ yǐ lìng zhū hóu, "(expr.) hold the feudal overlord and you control his vassals"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
Is 挟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 挟 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.