xié
preposition #17,522

Meanings

  1. 1 together with
  2. 2 in the company of
  3. 3 accompanied by

Examples

Tā xié fūrén chūxí le wǎnyàn.
He attended the banquet accompanied by his wife.
Báitóu-xiélǎo shì měi duì fūqī de yuànwàng.
'Growing old together' is every couple's wish.

Tips

register
is literary/formal. In everyday speech, use or instead. appears most often in formal writing, news, and the set phrase 白头偕老 (to grow old together).

Components

radical
rén
person (left-side form of 人)
The person radical on the left marks as a human relation - to be together with someone, to act in company. It anchors the social meaning and indexes with companion, partner, lean on, pair, mate - all chars about pairing and accompaniment.
phonetic
jiē
all; everyone (here phonetic)
supplies the sound jiē to xié, a moderate drift through palatalisation. The meaning of 'all together, everyone' is also a soft fit - being-with-someone is a small version of being-with-everyone. Same phonetic in harmonious, wipe.

Stroke Order

xié