Chinese word dictionary

膝袒

xī tǎn · to walk on one's knees and bare one's breast (a gesture of deepest apology)

Practice word

Word information

Simplified膝袒

Traditional膝袒

Pinyinxī tǎn

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

膝xī

knee

袒tǎn

to strip, to bare

How to learn 膝袒

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

膝盖xīgài

knee; (Internet slang) to kneel down (in admiration)

膝下xī xià

at the knee (in reference to children); (salutation used in letters to parents or grandparents)

双膝shuāng xī

both knees

牛膝niú xī

Achyranthes bidentata (root used in Chinese medicine)

盘膝pán xī

cross-legged

齐膝qí xī

level with one's knees; knee-length (skirt etc); knee-deep (mud etc)