先 — Chinese character

先

xiān

first, former, previous

Pinyin: xiān
Radical: 10 ⼉ (Legs)
Strokes: 6
Components: 土儿
Formation: ideographic — Someone stepping 止 in front of another person 儿
Japanese: 先 as a kanji

Common words with 先

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
先生	xiān sheng	teacher; gentleman; sir; mister (Mr.)
首先	shǒu xiān	first of all; in the first place
先进 (先進)	xiān jìn	sophisticated; advanced (technology etc); meritorious; exemplary (deeds etc)
先后 (先後)	xiān hòu	early or late; first and last; priority; in succession; one after another
优先 (優先)	yōu xiān	to have priority; to take precedence
领先 (領先)	lǐng xiān	to lead; to be in front
先锋 (先鋒)	xiān fēng	vanguard; pioneer; avant-garde
率先	shuài xiān	to take the lead; to show initiative
事先	shì xiān	in advance; before the event
先前	xiān qián	before; previously
原先	yuán xiān	originally; original
祖先	zǔ xiān	ancestors; forebears; (biology) ancestral species; ancient species from which present-day species evolved

English words written with 先

先 in the Chinese classics

Occurrences: Tao Te Ching 8 · Analects 19 · Art of War 24 · I Ching 6 · Mencius 51 · Zhuangzi 100 · Great Learning 11 · Doctrine of the Mean 5

Data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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