先 (xiān) is a Chinese character meaning “first”. It is written from 丿 (left-falling stroke) and 土 (earth; soil) and 儿 (child; legs), one above the other, and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “first; ahead of others”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丿 + 土 + 儿
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+5148; modern decomposition candidate checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry
Memory aid
A leaning stroke (丿) over the ground (土), with a pair of legs (儿) underneath — someone striding out ahead of everyone else, going first.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 先生xiān shēngMr.; sir; teacher先 = xiānspoken asxiān shengHSK 1
- 冯先生féng xiān shēngMr. Feng先 = xiānspoken asféng xiān sheng
- 先秦xiān qínpre-Qin (the period before the Qin dynasty)先 = xiān
- 祖先zǔ xiānancestors; forebears先 = xiān
- 首先shǒu xiānfirst of all; firstly先 = xiān
Go deeper
All readings
first; earlier
first; earlier; before; in advance; ahead of others
时间或次序在前的；事先，预先。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 先生xiān shēngMr.; sir; teacher先 = xiānspoken asxiān shengHSK 1
- 冯先生féng xiān shēngMr. Feng先 = xiānspoken asféng xiān sheng
- 先秦xiān qínpre-Qin (the period before the Qin dynasty)先 = xiān
- 祖先zǔ xiānancestors; forebears先 = xiān
- 首先shǒu xiānfirst of all; firstly先 = xiān
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 先 mean?
先 (xiān) means first; earlier; before; in advance; ahead of others.
How do you pronounce 先?
It is pronounced xiān.
What parts is 先 made of?
丿 (left-falling stroke) and 土 (earth; soil) and 儿 (child; legs), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+5148; modern decomposition candidate checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 先 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 先?
儿. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 先?
Common ones are 先生 and 冯先生. The reading of 先 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.