羨

简 羡 · 繁 羨
Mandarin · pinyin xiàn

Meanings

  1. to envy
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Characters in this entry

羨
Look up this written character
羡
xiàn · envy, admire; praise; covet
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4 · xian4

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1character link40same-tone records
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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

羨 · find source passages ↗ · 羡 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jin4 · sin6

Cantonese word readings for 羨. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character · Etymology 1

  1. to envy; to admire
  2. (literary) surplus
  3. (literary) to exceed
  4. (obsolete) crooked; evil
  5. 10th tetragram of the Taixuanjing (𝌏)
  6. a surname

character · Etymology 2

  1. only used in 沙羨/沙羡 (“Shayi (county)”)

character · Etymology 3

  1. (alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 延 (yán, “to invite; to engage”)
  2. (alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 埏 (“tomb passage”)

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack