馅 (xiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “filling or stuffing (in dumplings, buns, pies, etc”. It is written from 饣 (food radical (simplified form of 食)) and 臽 (small pit (said to show a person above a pit)), side by side, and takes 11 strokes.
Build the character for “filling; stuffing”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
饣 + 臽
Left–right structure
- 饣 food radical (simplified form of 食) · shí meaning
- 臽 small pit (said to show a person above a pit) · xiàn sound
Structure from: 广韵：餡，餅中餡（从食，臽声）。Modern IDS ⿰饣臽; strokes 3+8 cross-checked against hanzi-writer-data (饣 3, 臽 8, 馅 11)
Memory aid
Food (饣) with a little pit (臽) scooped into it — that hollow is where the filling goes.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
11 strokes
In real words
- 馅饼xiàn bǐngstuffed pancake; savory pie馅 = xiàn
- 露馅lòu xiànto give the game away; to let the cat out of the bag馅 = xiàn
Go deeper
All readings
filling; stuffing
filling or stuffing (in dumplings, buns, pies, etc.)
包在面食、点心里的肉、菜、糖等配料。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 馅饼xiàn bǐngstuffed pancake; savory pie馅 = xiàn
- 露馅lòu xiànto give the game away; to let the cat out of the bag馅 = xiàn
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 馅 mean?
馅 (xiàn) means filling or stuffing (in dumplings, buns, pies, etc.).
How do you pronounce 馅?
It is pronounced xiàn.
What parts is 馅 made of?
饣 (food radical (simplified form of 食)) and 臽 (small pit (said to show a person above a pit)), side by side. The recorded source is: 广韵：餡，餅中餡（从食，臽声）。Modern IDS ⿰饣臽; strokes 3+8 cross-checked against hanzi-writer-data (饣 3, 臽 8, 馅 11). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 馅 have?
11. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 馅?
饣. 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 馅?
Common ones are 馅饼 and 露馅. The reading of 馅 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.