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

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

Etymologically derived, yawn. Its radical form (yawn) appears in many related characters such as (, next in sequence), (huān, hubbub), (, song).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticyawn

Decomposition: ⿰曷欠 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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
mǎ xiē ěrMarshall (name)
mǐ xiē ěrMichel or Mitchell (name)
xiē sī dǐ lǐhysteria (loanword)
jiàn xiēto stop in the middle of sth
tíng xiēto stop for a rest
xiē yèto close down (temporarily or permanently)
xiē xito have a rest
xiē jiǎoto stop on the way for a rest
ān xiēto go to bed
xiē shǒuto rest
xiē hòu yǔanapodoton (a saying in which the second part, uttered after a pause or totally left out, is the intended meaning of ...
dōng xiē qīwinter break
mì xiē gēn dà xuéUniversity of Michigan
xiē le ba(dialect) give me a break!
guān diàn xiē yèto close up shop and cease business temporarily
27
Total compounds
56
As first character
15
As last character
30
As middle character

appears in 27 compound words: 56 as the first character, 15 as the last, and 30 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.

yán
0.6194,914 co-occurrences
ěr
0.52634,800 co-occurrences
dǐng
0.5146,228 co-occurrences
0.4961,104 co-occurrences
0.49127,228 co-occurrences
0.49114,382 co-occurrences
gēn
0.47614,490 co-occurrences
0.4602,268 co-occurrences
0.44210,746 co-occurrences
0.3942,658 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

Mìxiēgēn HúHSK 6+

Lake Michigan

xiēsīdǐlǐHSK 7+

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

nounadjective

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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 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 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 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

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 渴?
歇 (xiē) and 渴 (kě) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 欠 vs 氵 (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 27 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), 协 (to cooperate), 斜 (inclined), 鞋 (shoe), and 1 more. 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 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.