耸 (sǒng): to excite, to raise up, to shrug

耸 (sǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “to excite.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 从 (phonetic) and 耳 (semantic). It ranks #2115 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 耸 ear. Its radical form 耳 (ear) appears in many related characters such as 闻 (wén, to hear, to smell), 职 (zhí, job, duty), 联 (lián, connect, unite).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 耳 ear10 strokesFrequency #2115从 phonetic耳 semantic

Definitions

  1. to excite
  2. to raise up
  3. to shrug

Etymology & Origin

耸

pictophoneticear

Decomposition: ⿱从耳 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:从phonetic耳semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Practice writing 耸 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
耸肩sǒng jiānto shrug one's shoulders
耸人听闻sǒng rén tīng wénto sensationalize (idiom)
高耸gāo sǒngerect
危言耸听wēi yán sǒng tīngfrightening words to scare people (idiom)
耸立sǒng lìto stand tall
高耸入云gāo sǒng rù yúntall and erect, reaching through the clouds (idiom)
危辞耸听wēi cí sǒng tīngto startle sb with scary tale
耸动sǒng dòngto shake (a part of one's body)
8
Total compounds
50
As first character
13
As last character
38
As middle character

耸 appears in 8 compound words: 50 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 38 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 耸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

听tīng
0.524924 co-occurrences
肩jiān
0.521570 co-occurrences
峭qiào
0.488144 co-occurrences
峙zhì
0.462150 co-occurrences
闻wén
0.461714 co-occurrences
高gāo
0.4253,210 co-occurrences
脉mài
0.410150 co-occurrences
陡dǒu
0.40148 co-occurrences
顶dǐng
0.384216 co-occurrences
墙qiáng
0.382150 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

高耸入云gāosǒngrùyúnHSK 7+

to reach to the sky; to tower into the clouds

phrase
耸人听闻sǒngréntīngwénHSK 7+

deliberately exaggerating so as to create a sensation

phrase
危言耸听wēiyánsǒngtīngHSK 7+

to make exaggerated and frightening statements to scare people

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个耸字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě sǒng zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "耸" carries different meanings in classical Chinese.

Character Family

耳 Radical Family — Characters sharing the ear radical

耻chǐ聪cōng耽dān联lián聊liáo聆líng聋lóng聘pìn闻wén职zhí

Related Characters

闻wén职zhí联lián耳ěr聊liáo聚jù聪cōng聘pìn耻chǐ耽dān

Homophones — Characters pronounced sǒng

松sōng讼sòng宋sòng诵sòng送sòng颂sòng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 耸 (sǒng) mean in Chinese?
耸 (sǒng) primarily means "to excite." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2115 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 耸 and 下?
耸 (sǒng) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 耸 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 耸 have?
耸 is written with 10 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 耸?
The radical associated with 耸 is 耳 (ear). This radical appears in many characters related to ear.
What are the components of 耸?
耸 is composed of: 从 (phonetic), 耳 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱从耳 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 耸?
Common words with 耸 include: 耸肩 (sǒng jiān, "to shrug one's shoulders"); 耸人听闻 (sǒng rén tīng wén, "to sensationalize (idiom)"); 高耸 (gāo sǒng, "erect"); 危言耸听 (wēi yán sǒng tīng, "frightening words to scare people (idiom)"); 耸立 (sǒng lì, "to stand tall"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 耸 (sǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sǒng: 松 (pine, loose), 讼 (litigation), 宋 (the Song dynasty (960–1279)), 诵 (to read aloud), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 耸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 耸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.