Kilo Lingo

间

jiān

Traditional: 間

#1241 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

between, room (measure word for rooms)

Word origin

The character shows the sun 日 seen through a gate 门, an image of light coming through a gap. From this came the sense of a space between, and the use as a measure word for rooms.

Origin
associative compound
Root
门 (mén, gate) + 日 (rì, sun)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 间

间

Examples

订dìng。

I booked a room.

互hù。

Friends should help one another.

。

This classroom is very big.

座zuò河hé。

There is a river between the two mountains.

。

He is reading in the room.

间 (jiān) means between or serves as the measure word for rooms. It appears in many compounds such as 中间 and 房间.

Appears in 6 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 间.

时间shí jiāntime (duration/point)房间fáng jiānroom (in a building)之间zhī jiānbetween, among空间kōng jiānspace / room中间zhōng jiānmiddle, centre, among, in between时间轴shí jiān zhóutimeline, time axis

Used in

Grammar articles

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This word is part of lesson 25.