interjection #3,357

Meanings

  1. 1 hee (giggling sound)
  2. 2 hehe
  3. 3 tee-hee

Examples

Xī, nǐ zhēn hǎoxiào.
Hee, you're so funny.
Tā xīxī de xiào le qǐlái.
She giggled.

Tips

usage
is often reduplicated as 嘻嘻 (xīxī) to represent giggling. (xīhā) means hip-hop.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Left mouth radical (Kangxi #30) — the indexing radical, a square outline of an open mouth. Anchors the laughter sound: is an onomatopoeic exclamation of giggling or amusement (嘻嘻 hehe, to giggle). The mouth radical groups all speech and laughter sounds: , , , .
phonetic
joy; happy
Right phonetic (xǐ) — supplies the sound, shifting tone to xī. Beautifully self-reinforcing: itself means 'joyful, glad,' so when paired with the mouth radical it doubles as a semantic hint — happy sounds coming from the mouth = a giggle. The double- of marks weddings.

Stroke Order