Dictionary › 啃

啃

kěn

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 character level 7-9 Character

啃 (kěn) means "to gnaw; to nibble; to bite". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 啃 means

1. to gnaw
2. to nibble
3. to bite

Example sentences

• 她是啃老族。
  Tā shì kěnlǎozú.
  She's still dependent on her parents.
• 我劝他别老想着啃老。
  Wǒ quàn tā bié lǎo xiǎng zhe kěnlǎo.
  I advised him to be independent of his parents.

Words starting with 啃

• 啃书kěn shūlit. to gnaw a book; to study; to cram
• 啃老kěn lǎo(colloquial) to live with and depend on one's parents even upon reaching adulthood
• 啃老族kěn lǎo zú(colloquial) adults still living with and depending on their parents

Words containing 啃

• 嘴啃泥zuǐ kěn níto fall flat on one's face

Characters that look like 啃

Easy to confuse on sight. Compare them side by side once and the pair stops costing you.

• 喷pēnto spout; to spurt; to spray; to puff; (slang) to criticize scathingly (esp. online)
• 喧xuānclamor; noise
• 唠láoused in 唠叨
• 喳chāused in 喳喳
• 啧zé(interj. of admiration or of disgust); to click one's tongue…
• 唷yō(interjection expressing surprise) Oh!; My!

Sounds the same

Read kěn, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 肯to agree; to consent; to be willing to
• 恳earnest
• 垦to reclaim (land); to cultivate
• 龈variant of 啃

Where 啃 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · kěn–kōng (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• How characters are built from components.
• How to learn Chinese characters.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read kěn correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.