千 (qiān) is a Chinese character meaning “one thousand”. It is written from 丿 (left-falling stroke) and 十 (ten), one above the other, and takes 3 strokes.
Build the character for “thousand”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丿 + 十
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: data-pipeline/sources/dictionary.txt modern decomposition candidate, verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 strokes
Memory aid
A left-falling stroke (丿) sits above ten (十): picture ten counted a hundred times to make one thousand.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
3 strokes
In real words
- 千米qiān mǐkilometre千 = qiān
- 千万qiān wànten million; by all means千 = qiān
- 千克qiān kèkilogram千 = qiān
- 千里迢迢qiān lǐ tiáo tiáofrom a thousand li away; all the way from a distant place千 = qiān
- 千里驹qiān lǐ jūa swift horse that runs a thousand li; a highly gifted young person千 = qiān
- 千钧一发qiān jūn yí fàhanging by a thread; a critical moment千 = qiān
Go deeper
All readings
thousand
one thousand; a large number
数目一千；也可泛指数量很多。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 千米qiān mǐkilometre千 = qiān
- 千万qiān wànten million; by all means千 = qiān
- 千克qiān kèkilogram千 = qiān
- 千里迢迢qiān lǐ tiáo tiáofrom a thousand li away; all the way from a distant place千 = qiān
- 千里驹qiān lǐ jūa swift horse that runs a thousand li; a highly gifted young person千 = qiān
- 千钧一发qiān jūn yí fàhanging by a thread; a critical moment千 = qiān
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 千 mean?
千 (qiān) means one thousand; a large number.
How do you pronounce 千?
It is pronounced qiān.
What parts is 千 made of?
丿 (left-falling stroke) and 十 (ten), one above the other. The recorded source is: data-pipeline/sources/dictionary.txt modern decomposition candidate, verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 strokes. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 千 have?
3. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 千?
十. 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 千?
Common ones are 千米 and 千万. The reading of 千 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.