限 (xiàn) is a Chinese character meaning “a limit”. It is written from 阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 艮 (gèn — Kangxi radical 138; the trigram for mountain, also "stubborn"), side by side, and takes 8 strokes.
Build the character for “limit; to restrict”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
阝 + 艮
Left–right structure
- 阝 left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑) · fù meaning
- 艮 gèn — Kangxi radical 138; the trigram for mountain, also "stubborn" · gèn sound
Structure from: 现代字形拆分：限 = 阝(阜) + 艮；Unicode U+9650 radical 170 (阜)；hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验：0–1 笔为阝(2 画)，2–7 笔为艮(6 画)，合计 8 画
Memory aid
阝 on the left is a bank of earth blocking the way. 艮 on the right is the stubborn one who refuses to budge. Earth wall plus stubbornness — this is where you stop. That is the limit.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
8 strokes
In real words
- 限制xiàn zhìto restrict; restriction; limit限 = xiàn
- 无限wú xiànunlimited; infinite; boundless限 = xiàn
Go deeper
All readings
limit; to restrict
a limit; a bound; to restrict; to set a limit on
指定的范围、界限；也指规定范围，不许超过。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 限制xiàn zhìto restrict; restriction; limit限 = xiàn
- 无限wú xiànunlimited; infinite; boundless限 = xiàn
Origin
A phono-semantic compound: 阜 (written 阝 on the left) is a bank of earth, and 艮 supplies the sound. 说文解字 glosses 限 as "to obstruct" — the earth bank that stops you going further, hence a boundary or limit.
Source: 说文解字：限，阻也。从𨸏艮聲。
Sound component
艮 family diverged
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 限 mean?
限 (xiàn) means a limit; a bound; to restrict; to set a limit on.
How do you pronounce 限?
It is pronounced xiàn.
What parts is 限 made of?
阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 艮 (gèn — Kangxi radical 138; the trigram for mountain, also "stubborn"), side by side. The recorded source is: 现代字形拆分：限 = 阝(阜) + 艮；Unicode U+9650 radical 170 (阜)；hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验：0–1 笔为阝(2 画)，2–7 笔为艮(6 画)，合计 8 画. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 限 have?
8. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 限?
阜. 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 限?
Common ones are 限制 and 无限. The reading of 限 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.