Meaning
snake; serpent
Chinese: 蛇这种爬行动物。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “she” becomes a different word in each tone. 蛇 is the 2nd tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 画蛇添足huà shé tiān zúlit. draw legs on a snake (idiom); fig. to ruin the effect by adding sth superfluous; to overdo it
- 人蛇rén shéillegal immigrant (esp. one smuggled across borders)
- 蛇年shé niánYear of the Snake (e.g. 2001)
- 蛇行shé xíngto creep; to zigzag; to meander; to weave
- 蛇头shé tóuhead of a snake; human smuggler
Example Sentence
这种蛇没有毒，不会伤人。Zhè zhǒng shé méi yǒu dú, bú huì shāng rén.This kind of snake is not poisonous and will not hurt people.
这种Zhè zhǒngthis kind of蛇shésnake没有méi yǒuhaven't毒dúpoison，不会bú huìimprobable伤人shāng rénto injure sb。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
The bug/reptile radical 虫 plus 它 — and 它 itself was the original picture of a snake. It means ‘snake’.
A way to remember it
Add the reptile radical 虫 back onto 它 (the old ‘snake’) — a snake.
Easy to confuse with
- 它‘It’: the snake picture on its own, now borrowed as the pronoun ‘it’.