乡 (xiāng) is a Chinese character meaning “the countryside, as opposed to the city”. It is written from ㇜ and ㇜ and ㇒, and takes 3 strokes.
Build the character for “countryside; hometown”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
㇜ + ㇜ + ㇒
Top–middle–bottom structure
- ㇜ left-falling stroke turning upward (pie-zhe) unknown
- ㇜ left-falling stroke turning upward (pie-zhe) unknown
- ㇒ left-falling stroke unknown
Structure from: hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph and stroke inspection
Memory aid
Two turning strokes (㇜ then ㇜) stack up like winding paths, and one long left-falling stroke (㇒) runs down past them — the road home to the village.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
3 strokes
In real words
- 家乡jiā xiānghometown乡 = xiāng
- 老乡lǎo xiāngsomeone from the same hometown乡 = xiāng
Go deeper
All readings
countryside; hometown
the countryside, as opposed to the city; a village or township; one's native place
乡村，跟城市相对；也指家乡、故里。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 家乡jiā xiānghometown乡 = xiāng
- 老乡lǎo xiāngsomeone from the same hometown乡 = xiāng
Easy to confuse with
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 乡 mean?
乡 (xiāng) means the countryside, as opposed to the city; a village or township; one's native place.
How do you pronounce 乡?
It is pronounced xiāng.
What parts is 乡 made of?
㇜ and ㇜ and ㇒. The recorded source is: hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph and stroke inspection. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 乡 have?
3. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What words use 乡?
Common ones are 家乡 and 老乡. The reading of 乡 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.