嬉笑

• Pinyin: xī xiào
• Hanzi breakdown: 嬉 = 女 + 喜 (woman + happiness/joy — to play happily); 笑 = 竹 + 夭 (bamboo + bent/young — the bending motion of laughter)

Meaning

To laugh and play; to frolic; playful laughter. Describes lighthearted, joyful laughing combined with playful behaviour.

Typically describes children or young people in carefree, playful moments. More literary than 玩笑. Also appears in 嬉笑怒骂, a literary idiom meaning to express all manner of emotions through writing with wit and sharp criticism.

Examples

1. 孩子们在院子里嬉笑奔跑，欢声笑语传遍了整个胡同。 The kids ran around the courtyard laughing and playing, and their cheerful voices echoed through the entire alley.
2. 毕业典礼结束后，同学们在校园里嬉笑合影，留下了美好的青春记忆。 After the graduation ceremony, classmates laughed and took photos around campus, leaving behind wonderful memories of youth.
3. 她走进教室，看到学生们正在嬉笑打闹，便轻轻敲了敲讲台让大家安静下来。 She walked into the classroom and saw the students laughing and roughhousing, so she lightly tapped the lectern to quiet everyone down.

Usage Guide

Context: literature, descriptive writing, childhood, joyful scenes

Tone: warm

Do Say

• 散文集写农村孩子穿着补丁衣，在泥泞田埂上嬉笑追逐，与今天的城市童年形成鲜明对照。(The essay collection describes rural children in patched clothes laughing and chasing one another along muddy field paths, in sharp contrast to today's urban childhoods.)
• 导演回忆拍摄留守儿童纪录片时说，最难忘的不是艰辛，而是孩子们在困境中仍能嬉笑。(When recalling the filming of a documentary about left-behind children, the director said the most memorable thing was not the hardship, but that the children could still laugh and play in difficult circumstances.)

Don't Say

• 嬉笑 to describe adult laughter in everyday casual contexts — use 笑着 or 欢笑 for natural adult interactions; 嬉笑 has a slightly literary, childlike, or carefree connotation that can sound overly poetic or somewhat condescending when applied to adults in ordinary situations

Origin & History

嬉 = 女 + 喜 (woman + joy — to play joyfully, to frolic); 笑 = 竹 + 夭 (bamboo + young/bending — originally depicted bent bamboo or a bent figure laughing; laughter)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal