How to Write 馅 (xiàn) — Meaning “Filling / stuffing”

Imagine a piece of food (饣) with a hidden "trap" (臽 looks like a pit) inside — that trap is the filling waiting to be discovered. This helps you link the idea of stuffing or filling hidden inside food.

Write the left radical 饣 first with 3 strokes: a short left-falling stroke, then a horizontal, then a vertical hook. The right part 臽 starts with a horizontal hook (like 勹), then inside write 臼 with careful horizontal strokes. A common mistake is making the right side too small or mixing up the order of strokes inside 臼.

馅 means filling or stuffing (like meat inside food), while 飨 means to feast or entertain guests, and 饵 means bait or a kind of cake. Visually, 馅 has 臽 on the right, 飨 has a more complex right side (饗), and 饵 has 耳 on the right. Their pronunciations are also different: xiàn vs xiǎng vs ěr.

馅 is used for any food stuffing, like 肉馅 (meat filling) for dumplings, buns, or pies. The idiom 露馅 (lòu xiàn) literally means "filling leaks out" but is used to say a secret has been revealed. In Chinese culture, making filled dumplings (饺子) with family is a common tradition, so 馅 appears often in daily cooking talk.

Common words containing 馅 include: 肉馅 (ròu xiàn) — meat filling / minced meat; 馅儿饼 (xiàn ér bǐng) — Stuffed pancake / meat pie; 露馅 (lòu xiàn) — To let the cat out of the bag.