(xīn): fragrant

(xīn) is a Chinese character meaning “fragrant.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #2477 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, incense. Its radical form (fragrant) appears in many related characters such as (xiāng, fragrant).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. fragrant

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticincense

Decomposition: ⿱殸香 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

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
wēn xīncomfort
kāng nǎi xīncarnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) (loanword)
xīn xiāngfragrance
wēn xīn tí shìPlease note:
dé yì shuāng xīn(idiom) possessing both integrity and artistic skills
5
Total compounds
20
As first character
60
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 5 compound words: 20 as the first character, 60 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

guì
0.4752,424 co-occurrences
wēn
0.4512,784 co-occurrences
huàn
0.448474 co-occurrences
nǎi
0.4352,388 co-occurrences
liú
0.4332,658 co-occurrences
0.423912 co-occurrences
0.4064,992 co-occurrences
0.406390 co-occurrences
shǐ
0.400666 co-occurrences
shū
0.395810 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

déyìshuāngxīnHSK 7+

being reputable for having both artistic skills and morals (especially when referring to an artist of any domain)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

xīn zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "馨" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

李贞秀频暴走 陈凤点名民众党:把她丢到鲨鱼堆不尽公平

lǐ zhēn xiù pín bào zǒu chén fèng xīn diǎn míng mín zhòng dǎng : bǎ tā diū dào shā yú duī bù jǐn gōng píng

Lee Jeong-su frequently loses her temper; Chen Fengxin calls out the People's Party: "Throwing her to the sharks wouldn't be fair"

中時新聞網Mar 2026

黄国伦回母校获颁杰出校友!见寇乃“跪地”喊平身

huáng guó lún huí mǔ jiào huò bān jié chū jiào yǒu ! jiàn 寇 nǎi xīn guì dì hǎn píng shēn

Huang Guolun Returns to His Alma Mater to Receive Outstanding Alumnus Award! Upon Seeing Kou Nai-xin, He "Kneels Down" and Calls for Her to Rise

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

...公务车北检签结 黄国昌酸:都是自己人!温

. . . gōng wù chē běi jiǎn qiān jié huáng guó chāng suān : dōu shì zì jǐ rén ! wēn xīn

...Official vehicle cleared by the Northern District Prosecutors' Office; Huang Kuo-chang quips: "It's all our own people!" Heartwarming

三立新聞網Mar 2026

信用管制松绑!第2户贷6成 徐佳这样看

xìn yòng guǎn zhì sōng bǎng ! dì 2 hù dài 6 chéng xú jiā xīn zhè yàng kàn

Mortgage Regulations Eased! 60% Loan-to-Value for Second Homes: Here’s What Hsu Chia-hsin Has to Say

BastillepostFeb 2026

王君顺产经历人生最痛 囡囡4日大已识诈型

wáng jūn xīn shùn chǎn jīng lì rén shēng zuì tòng 囡 囡 4 rì dà yǐ shí zhà xíng

Wang Junxin gave birth smoothly and experienced the most painful in her life, and her daughter has learned about fraud on the 4th

Tatoeba

我在母亲节送给我的妈妈一束康乃

Wǒ zài Mǔqīnjié sònggěi wǒ de māma yī shù kāngnǎixīn.

I gave my mother carnations on Mother's Day.

Tatoeba

你有个温的家庭。

Nǐ yǒu gè wēnxīn de jiātíng.

You have a very nice family.

Tatoeba

有一个温感人的故事,是关于一只获救的狗狗的。

Yǒu yī gè wēnxīn gǎnrén de gùshi, shì guānyú yī zhī huòjiù de gǒu gǒu de.

There’s a heartwarming story about a rescued puppy.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the fragrant radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced xīn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 馨 (xīn) mean in Chinese?
馨 (xīn) primarily means "fragrant." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2477 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 馨 have?
馨 is written with 20 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 馨?
The radical associated with 馨 is 香 (fragrant). This radical appears in many characters related to fragrant.
What are the components of 馨?
馨 is composed of: 殸 (phonetic), 香 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱殸香 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 馨?
Common words with 馨 include: 温馨 (wēn xīn, "comfort"); 康乃馨 (kāng nǎi xīn, "carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) (loanword)"); 馨香 (xīn xiāng, "fragrance"); 温馨提示 (wēn xīn tí shì, "Please note:"); 德艺双馨 (dé yì shuāng xīn, "(idiom) possessing both integrity and artistic skills"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 馨 (xīn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xīn: 心 (heart, mind), 芯 ((bound form) the pith of the rush plant (used as a lampwick)), 辛 ((of taste) hot or pungent), 欣 (happy), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 馨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 馨 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.