• 188th most frequent character
  • Adds ~0.11% to your reading coverage
  • 1 dictionary entry
  • Appears in 133 words
  • Component in 11 characters

Decomposition

1Once
2Radical
3Graphical
丿

Pinyin & Meaning

1. xiān (xian1)early • prior • former • in advance • first

Pronunciation Clues

There are no phonetic clues for this character.
📚Save to a study list and track your progressSign up to create custom character lists, mark characters as learned, and build your knowledge step by step.

Appears In

also appears in:

Example Words

Common

先生 
首先 

Uncommon

事先 
优先 (優先)
先前 
先天 
先后 (先後)
先机 (先機)
先知 
先行 
先进 (先進)
先锋 (先鋒)
原先 
抢先 (搶先)
率先 
祖先 
预先 (預先)
领先 (領先)

RareShow 115

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  • 1940th most frequent character
  • Adds <0.01% to your reading coverage
  • 1 dictionary entry
  • Appears in 44 words
  • Component in 1 character

Decomposition

1Once
3Graphical

Pinyin & Meaning

1. xián (xian2)worthy or virtuous person • honorific used for a person of the same or a younger generation

Pronunciation Clues

There are no phonetic clues for this character.
📚Save to a study list and track your progressSign up to create custom character lists, mark characters as learned, and build your knowledge step by step.

Appears In

also appears in:

Example Words

Common

贤内助 (賢內助)
贤惠 (賢惠)

Uncommon

先贤 (先賢)
奉贤 (奉賢)
奉贤区 (奉賢區)
招贤纳士 (招賢納士)
普贤菩萨 (普賢菩薩)
王祖贤 (王祖賢)
圣贤 (聖賢)
见贤思齐 (見賢思齊)
贤人 (賢人)
贤妻良母 (賢妻良母)
贤淑 (賢淑)
贤良 (賢良)
进贤 (進賢)
集贤 (集賢)

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Decomposition Levels:
Level 1 - Once: Only divided once. So only two components.
Level 2 - Radical: Radical Decomposition. The character gets decomposed into its lowest radical components. For the complete list visit the Radical wikipedia page.
Level 3 - Graphical: Graphical Decomposition. Shows all the strokes & lowest level of components that make up the character.
If you see questions marks or too many "block" characters, especially when it comes to level 3 decomposition you might need the correct font.