(): (bound form) sunset, dusk, (bound form) evening, night, Taiwan pr.

() is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) sunset.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1975 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, a crescent moon. Its radical form (evening) appears in many related characters such as (wài, outside), (duō, many), (, night).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) sunset
  2. dusk
  3. (bound form) evening
  4. night
  5. Taiwan pr.

Etymology & Origin

pictographicA crescent moon

Decomposition: ⿻勹丶 (layout: overlay)

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounchú xīlunar New Year's Eve5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
wēi zài dàn xīin imminent peril (idiom)
qián xīeve
xī yángsunset
bīn xī fǎ ní yà zhōuPennsylvania
zhāo xī xiāng chǔto spend all one's time together (idiom)
西xī yáng xī xiàthe sun sets in the west (idiom)
zhāo xīmorning and night
yī zhāo yī xīlit. one morning and one evening (idiom)
zhāo bù bǎo xīat dawn, not sure of lasting to evening (idiom)
xī zhàoglow of the setting sun
xīn nián qián xīNew Year's eve
bīn xī fǎ ní yà dà xuéUniversity of Pennsylvania
yī xī shù jīnglit. one scare after another in a single night (idiom)
tiān yǒu bù cè fēng yún , rén yǒu dàn xī huò fúfortune as unpredictable as the weather, every day may bring fortune or calamity (idiom)
xī fā zhāo zhìto depart in the evening and arrive the next morning
36
Total compounds
14
As first character
50
As last character
36
As middle character

appears in 36 compound words: 14 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 36 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

bīn
0.59915,888 co-occurrences
chū
0.51913 co-occurrences
qián
0.49456,322 co-occurrences
0.49127,090 co-occurrences
dàn
0.4613,516 co-occurrences
0.44915,948 co-occurrences
chú
0.44714,546 co-occurrences
0.445990 co-occurrences
cháo
0.4109,300 co-occurrences
0.40826,574 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

zhāobùbǎoxīHSK 5+

to be in a critical and desperate situation; to be on the verge of death (or collapse, defeat, etc.)

phrase
zhāo guò xī gǎiHSK 5+

to correct in the evening a fault of the morning (idiom); to quickly amend one's ways

phrase
zhāolìngxīgǎiHSK 5+

to change frequently and erratically

phrase
zhāo wén xī gǎiHSK 5+

lit. heard in the morning and changed by the evening; to correct an error very quickly (idiom)

phrase
huā zhāo yuè xīHSK 5+

a beautiful day; cf Birthday of the Flowers on lunar 15th February and Mid-autumn Festival on lunar 15th August

phrase
mìng zài dàn xīHSK 5+

to be at death's door (idiom)

phrase
wēizàidànxīHSK 5+

in imminent danger; on the brink of crisis

phrase
西xīyángxīxiàHSK 5+

when the sun sets in the west; at dusk

phrase
yīzhāoyīxīHSK 5+

short period of time

phrase
zhǐzhēngzhāoxīHSK 5+

to make the best use of one's time

phrase
zhǐ zhēng dàn xīHSK 5+

see 只爭朝夕|只争朝夕[zhi3 zheng1 zhao1 xi1]

phrase
zhāoyōngxìsūnHSK 5+

talentless (used to describe someone who does little other than eat)

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le xī zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "夕" in the dictionary.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

【日常辩证】老瓶子/享受阳之美

rì cháng biàn zhèng lǎo píng zǐ xiǎng shòu xī yáng zhī měi

【Daily dialectic】Old bottle/enjoy the beauty of the sunset

中時新聞網Feb 2026

北市医美诊所枪击!竹联23岁枪手“除刚交保”初五开轰 检声押禁见

běi shì yī měi zhěn suǒ qiāng jī ! zhú lián 2 3 suì qiāng shǒu chú xī gāng jiāo bǎo chū wǔ kāi hōng jiǎn shēng yā jīn jiàn

North City Medical Beauty Clinic shooting! The 23-year-old gunman of the Bamboo Union "just handed over the bail on Chinese New Year's Eve" opened on the fifth day of the first month, and the prosecution was prohibited

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

伊朗再军演 美部署F-22 谈判前美伊加紧“排兵布阵”

yī lǎng zài jūn yǎn měi bù shǔ F 2 2 tán pàn qián xī měi yī jiā jǐn pái bīng bù zhèn

Iran resumes military exercises, the United States deploys F-22s, and the United States and Iran step up their "troop arrangement" on the eve of negotiations

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

民调前 江启臣固桩本命区 杨琼璎端政绩

mín diào qián xī jiāng qǐ chén gù zhuāng běn mìng qū yáng 琼 璎 duān zhèng jì

On the eve of the polls, Jiang Qichen solidified the pile of the natal district Yang Qiongying's political achievements

EttodayFeb 2026

乌俄战争4周年前 泽伦斯基喊话川普:请站我们这一边

wū é zhàn zhēng 4 zhōu nián qián xī zé lún sī jī hǎn huà chuān pǔ : qǐng zhàn wǒ men zhè yī biān

On the eve of the 4th anniversary of the Ukrainian-Russian War, Zelensky shouted to Trump: Please stand on our side

Tatoeba

美丽的阳,不是吗?

Měilì de xīyáng, bùshìma?

A beautiful sunset, isn't it?

Tatoeba

你看过这么美的阳吗?

Nǐ kàn guo zhème Měidí xīyáng ma?

Have you ever seen such a beautiful sunset?

Tatoeba

我们看着阳西下。

Wǒmen kàn zhe xīyángxīxià.

We are watching the sun set.

Tatoeba

考试前,他特别焦虑。

Kǎoshì qiánxī, tā tèbié jiāolǜ.

He was very anxious on the eve of the exam.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the evening radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 夕 (xī) mean in Chinese?
夕 (xī) primarily means "(bound form) sunset." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1975 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 夕 and 早?
夕 (xī) and 早 (zǎo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 夕 (evening) vs 早 (morning).
How many strokes does 夕 have?
夕 is written with 3 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 夕?
The radical associated with 夕 is 夕 (evening). This radical appears in many characters related to evening.
What are the components of 夕?
夕 is composed of: 勹 (structural), 丶 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻勹丶 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 夕?
Common words with 夕 include: 危在旦夕 (wēi zài dàn xī, "in imminent peril (idiom)"); 前夕 (qián xī, "eve"); 夕阳 (xī yáng, "sunset"); 除夕 (chú xī, "lunar New Year's Eve"); 宾夕法尼亚州 (bīn xī fǎ ní yà zhōu, "Pennsylvania"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 夕 (xī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xī: 吸 (to breathe), 西 (the West), 希 (to hope), 息 (breath), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 夕 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 夕 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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.