xiǎn
verb HSK 5 #5,539

Meanings

  1. 1 to show; to reveal
  2. 2 prominent; obvious

Examples

HSK 2
Tā xiǎnde hěn kāixīn.
She appears very happy.
HSK 3
Zhège wèntí hěn míngxiǎn.
This problem is very obvious.
HSK 7-9
Xiǎnshìpíng huài le.
The display screen is broken.

Tips

usage
is used in: 明显 (obvious), 显示 (to display/show), 显得 (to appear/seem), 显然 (obviously), 显眼 (conspicuous). In tech: 显示器 (monitor), 显卡 (graphics card).

Components

radical
sun; day
Top radical (sun) depicts daylight breaking over things - what the sun illuminates becomes visible. means 'visible, manifest, conspicuous', and the sun radical embodies that core image: things become when sunlight falls on them. Same radical groups with (bright), (dim), (clear) - the family of visibility states.
semantic
trade; profession
Bottom in this position is the simplified silhouette of the original phonetic (silk-threads-spread-out-in-sunlight). Modern PRC reform reshaped that bottom unit into the simpler form. The compound now reads as 'sun + scaffolding' = things laid out in sunlight, made visible - preserving the core 'show, manifest' meaning even after simplification.

Stroke Order

xiǎn