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

挟 (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 扌 (structural) and 夹 (structural). It ranks #2641 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

挟

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
挟持verbxié chíto seize (sb) by the arms
要挟verbyāo xiéto threaten
挟制verbxié zhìto 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phrasexié tiān zǐ yǐ lìng zhū hóu(expr.) hold the feudal overlord and you control his vassals
挟细拿粗xié xì ná cūto provoke
挟带verbxié dàito carry along
挟怨xié yuànto hold a grudge
裹挟verbguǒ xiéto sweep along
9
Total compounds
78
As first character
22
As last character
0
As middle character

挟 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 挟 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

裹guǒ
0.542200 co-occurrences
凄qī
0.50436 co-occurrences
持chí
0.4291,028 co-occurrences
诈zhà
0.41532 co-occurrences
诬wū
0.40218 co-occurrences
贼zéi
0.38510 co-occurrences
私sī
0.375150 co-occurrences
质zhì
0.371101 co-occurrences
要yào
0.368730 co-occurrences
妄wàng
0.36722 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

挟细拿粗xié xì ná cūHSK 7+

to provoke

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他挟起袖子,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.

WorldjournalApr 2026

乌克兰首都枪击6死 莫斯科枪手一度挟持人质遭击毙

wū kè lán shǒu dōu qiāng jī 6 sǐ mò sī kē qiāng shǒu yī dù xié chí rén zhì zāo jī bì

Six killed in shooting in Ukraine's capital; Moscow gunman who briefly took hostages shot dead

StheadlineApr 2026

...克兰基辅枪击案至少5死10伤 枪手商店内挟持人质 遭警方击毙

. . . kè lán jī fǔ qiāng jī àn zhì shǎo 5 sǐ 1 0 shāng qiāng shǒu shāng diàn nèi xié chí rén zhì zāo jǐng fāng jī bì

...At least 5 dead and 10 injured in a shooting in Kyiv; the gunman took hostages inside a store and was shot dead by police

東方日報Apr 2026

那不勒斯银行挟持25人质两句钟 贼人带夹万财物逃走

nà bù lè sī yín háng xié chí 2 5 rén zhì liǎng jù zhōng zéi rén dài jiā wàn cái wù táo zǒu

Bank in Naples: 25 Hostages Held for Two Hours; Robbers Escape with a Safe Full of Loot

TvbsApr 2026

影音/伊朗挟海峡自重! 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 . . .

Video/Iran: Exercise Restraint in the Strait! Ignoring Trump's 48-Hour Ultimatum, Engaging in a Standoff with the U.S...

三立新聞網Mar 2026

挟阳光女子票房魅力 “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

他把一个包裹挟在腋下。

Tā bǎ yī gè bāoguǒ jiā zài yèxià.

He held a package under his arm.

Tatoeba

她把箱子挟在手臂下。

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 挟 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.