嘻

xī
interjection #3,357

Meanings

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

Examples

HSK 3
Tā xīxī de xiào le qǐlái.
She giggled.
HSK 4
Xī, nǐ zhēn hǎoxiào.
Hee, you're so funny.

Tips

usage
嘻 is often reduplicated as 嘻嘻 to represent giggling. 嘻哈 means hip-hop.

Components

radical
口 kǒu
mouth
Left mouth radical (Kangxi #30) - the indexing radical, a square outline of an open mouth. Anchors the laughter sound: 嘻 is an onomatopoeic exclamation of giggling or amusement (嘻嘻 hehe, 嘻笑 to giggle). The mouth radical groups all speech and laughter sounds: 笑, 哈, 呵, 哎.
phonetic
喜 xǐ
joy; happy
Right phonetic 喜 - supplies the sound, shifting tone to xī. Beautifully self-reinforcing: 喜 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-喜 of 囍 marks weddings.

Stroke Order

嘻 xī