纤

纖
xiān
adjective #17,204

Meanings

  1. 1 fine; delicate; minute
  2. 2 fiber

Examples

HSK 4
Tā yǒu yī shuāng xiānxì de shǒu.
She has slender, delicate hands.
HSK 6
Zhèzhǒng miànliào de xiānwéi hěn róuruǎn.
The fiber of this fabric is very soft.

Tips

mistakes
纤 has two pronunciations: xiān (fine, delicate, fiber) and qiàn (boatman's tow-rope, as in 纤夫). The xiān reading is far more common.

Components

radical
纟 sī
silk (radical form of 糸)
Left-side silk radical, the simplified three-stroke form of 糸 (a twist of silken threads). The indexing radical - 纤 is a fine fibre, by extension anything slender (纤维 fibre, 纤细 slim). The simplified 纤 merged two traditional characters: 縴 (tow-rope) and 纖 (delicate), both silk-rooted. Same family: 缝 to sew, 绳 rope.
phonetic
千 qiān
thousand
Right side 千 - pictograph of a person with a horizontal marker, borrowed for 'thousand.' Supplies the qiàn reading (tow-rope) directly and xiān (delicate) by old palatalisation. The phonetic adds flavour: a thousand fine threads bundled into one strand - the literal makeup of a 纤维 fibre.

Stroke Order

纤 xiān