靴 (xuē): boots

靴 (xuē) is a Chinese character meaning “boots.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 革 (semantic) and 化 (phonetic). It ranks #2793 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 靴 leather. Its radical form 革 (leather) appears in many related characters such as 鞋 (xié, shoe), 革 (gé, animal hide), 靶 (bǎ, target).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 革 leather13 strokesFrequency #2793革 semantic化 phonetic

Definitions

  1. boots

Etymology & Origin

靴

pictophoneticleather

Decomposition: ⿰革化 (layout: left-right)

Components:革semantic化phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
靴子xuē ziboots
雨靴yǔ xuērain boots
马靴mǎ xuēriding boots
靴子落地xuē zi luò dìlit. the boot hits the floor (idiom)
长统靴cháng tǒng xuēvariant of 長筒靴|长筒靴[chang2 tong3 xue1]
雪地靴xuě dì xuēugg boots
防毒靴套fáng dú xuē tàogas-protection boots
涉水靴shè shuǐ xuēwading boots
长靴cháng xuēboot
靴掖子xuē yē zidouble layer of padding in a boot
长筒靴cháng tǒng xuētall boots
高筒靴gāo tǒng xuētall boots
短靴duǎn xuēankle boots
挂靴guà xuē(sports) to hang up one's boots
靴篱莺xuē lí yīng(bird species of China) booted warbler (Iduna caligata)
19
Total compounds
32
As first character
58
As last character
11
As middle character

靴 appears in 19 compound words: 32 as the first character, 58 as the last, and 11 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 靴 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

瘸qué
0.47778 co-occurrences
蹬dēng
0.47484 co-occurrences
筒tǒng
0.459636 co-occurrences
鞋xié
0.435492 co-occurrences
挂guà
0.425528 co-occurrences
穿chuān
0.4101,284 co-occurrences
皮pí
0.4101,536 co-occurrences
袜wà
0.40572 co-occurrences
膝xī
0.400180 co-occurrences
奖jiǎng
0.3981,554 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

靴子落地xuēzi luòdìHSK 7+

Something that is anticipated but not fully certain happens.

phrase
隔靴搔痒géxuēsāoyǎngHSK 7+

to attempt an ineffective solution

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

靴字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。

xuē zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character for "boot" is written is quite unique and left a deep impression on me.

Tatoeba

他刮下靴子上的泥巴。

Tā guā xià xuēzi shàng de níbā.

He scraped the mud off his boots.

Tatoeba

齐里擦拭他的军靴。

Qí lǐ cāshì tā de jūn xuē.

Ziri cleaned his combat boots.

Tatoeba

这靴是用皮革做的。

Zhè xuē shì yòng pígé zuò de.

These boots are made of leather.

Tatoeba

我想买一双滑雪靴。

Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yī shuāng huáxuě xuē.

I want to buy a pair of ski boots.

Tatoeba

她买了一双山地靴。

Tā mǎi le yī shuāng shāndì xuē.

She bought a pair of walking boots.

Character Family

革 Radical Family — Characters sharing the leather radical

靶bǎ鞭biān鞠jū鞋xié革gé

Related Characters

鞋xié革gé靶bǎ鞠jū鞭biān

Homophones — Characters pronounced xuē

穴xué学xué雪xuě

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 靴 (xuē) mean in Chinese?
靴 (xuē) primarily means "boots." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2793 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 靴 and 货?
靴 (xuē) and 货 (huò) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 革 vs 贝 (same 化 component).
How many strokes does 靴 have?
靴 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 靴?
The radical associated with 靴 is 革 (leather). This radical appears in many characters related to leather.
What are the components of 靴?
靴 is composed of: 革 (semantic), 化 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰革化 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 靴?
Common words with 靴 include: 靴子 (xuē zi, "boots"); 雨靴 (yǔ xuē, "rain boots"); 马靴 (mǎ xuē, "riding boots"); 靴子落地 (xuē zi luò dì, "lit. the boot hits the floor (idiom)"); 长统靴 (cháng tǒng xuē, "variant of 長筒靴|长筒靴[chang2 tong3 xue1]"). There are over 19 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 靴 (xuē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xuē: 穴 (cave), 学 (to learn), 雪 (snow). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 靴 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 靴 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.