How to Write 咸 (xián) — Meaning “salty”

Imagine a mouth (口) tasting pickled food and making a face because it is too salty — the internal part looks like a person frowning. You can also think: "Everyone (all 咸) at the table says the soup is too salty."

Start with the outer frame: first write 厂 (slant) then 戈 (spear) inside, but the radical 口 is placed at the top-left after the slant. Common mistake is making the 口 too large or forgetting the dot on 戈 — the stroke order is: horizontal, left-falling, then write the 口 (vertical, horizontal fold, horizontal), then finish with the 戈 strokes (horizontal, oblique hook, slash, dot).

咸 means "salty" and has a 口 mouth radical on the left of the inner part. 君 (jūn) means "ruler" and has a 口 under a hand-like component, often used in honorifics. 吝 (lìn) means "stingy" and has a 文 (script) above a 口, pronounced differently. Focus on the top-left 口 in 咸 versus the bottom 口 in 君 and 吝.

咸 appears in everyday words like 咸菜 (pickled vegetables) and 咸鱼 (salted fish), both common in Chinese cuisine. The phrase 太咸 means "too salty" and is used when food has too much salt. Culturally, 咸鱼 also colloquially means a "dead fish" or a lazy person who gives up on life, popular in internet slang.

Common words containing 咸 include: 咸菜 (xián cài) — pickles; 太咸 (tài xián) — Too salty.; 咸鱼 (xián yú) — salted fish.