xié
adjective #28,556

Meanings

  1. 1 harmonious
  2. 2 humorous

Examples

Jiātíng héxié shì yíqiè xìngfú de jīchǔ.
Family harmony is the foundation of all happiness.
Zhōngwén wǎngluò yōumò chángcháng yīkào xiéyīn gěng.
Chinese internet humor often relies on homophone puns.

Tips

memory
speech + all — when all voices speak together harmoniously.

Components

radical
yán
speech (radical form of 言)
Left speech radical — the simplified two-stroke side-form of , originally a mouth above a horizontal stroke. Indexes in the speech-and-discourse family with to speak, words, to chat, to translate. Anchors the meaning: harmony in is fundamentally agreement reached through talking together.
phonetic
jiē
all; together
Right supplies the sound — jiē shifting to xié via initial alternation in classical readings. Beautifully, itself means 'all together, in unison,' which gives a strong semantic bonus: harmonious is what happens when everyone speaks in agreement. Sound and meaning lock together to give 'all-voices-aligned.'

Stroke Order

xié