Kilo Lingo

(xiàn) - to appear, to show; present, current (in compounds like 现在, 发现) in Mandarin

xiàn

Traditional: 現

Line drawing of 现
Coloured illustration of 现
#5009 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to appear, to show; present, current (in compounds like 现在, 发现)

Word origin

A phono-semantic compound: the jade radical 王 (a form of 玉) relates to a gem being revealed, while 见 (jiàn, to see) gives both sound and the sense of appearing, hence to appear or present.

Origin
phono-semantic
Root
王 (jade radical) + 见 (jiàn, to see, phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 现

Examples

What time is it now?

I discovered a problem.

kǒu

He suddenly appeared at the door.

Modern technology develops quickly.

退tuì

He has now retired.

现 (xiàn) means to appear, to show, or present. It is rarely used on its own but anchors essential vocabulary like 现在 (now), 发现 (to discover), 出现 (to appear), and 表现 (to perform).

Appears in 7 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 现.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 101.