HSK 6 · Objects

剑 jiàn “sword” in Chinese

Traditional 劍

What 剑 means

  1. sword
  2. double-edged sword
  3. classifier for blows of a sword

Measure word 口 kǒu or 把 bǎ · 一口剑 yì kǒu jiàn

How to say 剑

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale剑jiàn4th tone, falling

剑 in a sentence

  1. 把剑给我。

    Bǎ jiàn gěi wǒ.

    Give me the sword.

    Sentence #4763883 from Tatoeba

  2. 我要一把剑！

    Wǒ yào yì bǎ jiàn!

    I want a sword!

    Sentence #1441201 from Tatoeba

  3. 剑在哪里？

    Jiàn zài nǎlǐ?

    Where’s the sword?

    Sentence #12080531 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 剑 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 剑 (jiàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
剑jiàndouble-edged sword
  • 佥all · qiānSound part
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāoMeaning part

刂 hints at the meaning (knife); 佥 (qiān) hints at the sound. Compare it with jiàn.

How to write 剑

剑 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

剑 (jiàn) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 剑 (jiàn). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 剑

More words: Objects & Materials

拐杖guǎizhàng · walking stick罐guàn · jar古董gǔdǒng · antique棍棒gùnbàng · club坑kēng · pit孔kǒng · hole空隙kòngxì · gap筐kuāng · basket

FAQs

剑 (jiàn) means “sword” or “double-edged sword”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it jiàn: jiàn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 剑 is written 劍. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 口 (kǒu) or 把 (bǎ). For example, one sword is 一口剑 (yì kǒu jiàn).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 剑 from the suggestions. Typing jian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
剑 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.