(): to hope, to admire, variant of 稀[xi1]

() is a Chinese character meaning “to hope.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #508 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to hope
  2. to admire
  3. variant of 稀[xi1]

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
verbxī wàngto hope2

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xī làGreece
xī tè lèAdolf Hitler (1889-1945)
xī ěrHill (name)
xī lā lǐHillary (name)
xī bó láiHebrew
nán xīNancy
qiáo xīJosh or Joshi (name)
bō xī mǐ yàvariant of 波西米亞|波西米亚[Bo1 xi1 mi3 ya4]
xī ěr dùnHilton (hotel chain)
xī qívariant of 稀奇[xi1 qi2]
xī lǜ wángHerod the Great (73 BC - 4 BC), Roman-appointed king of Judea (37-4 BC)
·pà lì sī · xī ěr dùnParis Hilton
xī jì(literary) to hope
lù dé wéi xīLudwig (name)
xī hanvariant of 稀罕[xi1 han5]
86
Total compounds
52
As first character
12
As last character
36
As middle character

appears in 86 compound words: 52 as the first character, 12 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.

wàng
0.805551,807 co-occurrences
0.755134,921 co-occurrences
0.48970,839 co-occurrences
chè
0.4382,460 co-occurrences
0.42939,228 co-occurrences
ěr
0.42381,990 co-occurrences
0.422123,768 co-occurrences
0.41394,158 co-occurrences
0.40489,436 co-occurrences
0.39624,204 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

BōxīmǐyàHSK 7+

Bohemia (a cultural region in the west of the former Czechoslovakia and present-day Czech Republic)

Gǔ XīlàyǔHSK 7+

Ancient Greek (language)

LùdéwéixīHSK 6+

a transliteration of the German male given name Ludwig

NíxīmǐjìHSK 7+

Nehemiah (book of the Bible)

xībóláirénHSK 7+

Hebrew (person)

noun
XībóláishūHSK 7+

Book of Hebrews

xībóláiwénHSK 7+

the Hebrew language

noun
xībóláiyǔHSK 7+

the Hebrew language

noun
Xī'ěrbótèHSK 7+

a transliteration of the German surname Hilbert

xī là zì mǔHSK 7+

Greek alphabet

phrase
xī qí gǔ guàiHSK 5+

variant of 稀奇古怪[xi1 qi2 gu3 guai4]

phrase
线yī xiàn xī wàngHSK 4+

a gleam of hope

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

长时间使用电脑后,记得让眼睛休息一下。

Cháng shíjiān shǐyòng diànnǎo hòu, jìde ràng yǎnjing xiūxi yīxià.

After using the computer for a long time, remember to let your eyes rest.

中時新聞網Feb 2026

影》老柯卸任 韩国瑜亲探视发声:望他注意身心调节

yǐng lǎo 柯 xiè rèn hán guó 瑜 qīn tàn shì fā shēng : xī wàng tā zhù yì shēn xīn diào jié

Shadow" Lao Ke stepped down Han Yu personally visited and spoke: I hope he pays attention to physical and mental adjustment

LtnFeb 2026

经典赛》王建民撞脸SJ澈的飘发照 韩媒也关注

jīng diǎn sài wáng jiàn mín zhuàng liǎn S J xī chè de piāo fā zhào hán méi yě guān zhù

Classic" Wang Jianmin hit SJ Heechul's hair photo in the face Korean media also paid attention

It之家Feb 2026

...EB 病毒取得关键突破,为移植患者带来新

. . . E B bìng dú qǔ dé guān jiàn tū pò , wéi yí zhí huàn zhě dài lái xīn xī wàng

... Epstein-Barr virus has made a key breakthrough that brings new hope to transplant patients

百度新闻Feb 2026

腊全国出租车司机举行罢工

xī xī quán guó chū zū chē sī jī jǔ háng bà gōng

Cab drivers strike across Greece

百度新闻Feb 2026

望老百姓安宁幸福” 他的新春愿望和冬窝子...

xī wàng lǎo bǎi xìng ān nìng xìng fú tā de xīn chūn yuàn wàng hé dōng wō zǐ . . .

"I hope the people are peaceful and happy" His New Year's wish and winter nest...

Tatoeba

望与现实之间的矛盾,因何而起?

Xīwàng yǔ xiànshí zhījiān de máodùn, yīn hé ér qǐ?

From what stems this contradiction between our hopes and our reality?

Tatoeba

治愈的望有多大?

Zhìyù de xīwàng yǒu duōdà?

What hope is there of a cure?

Tatoeba

你会说伯来语吗?

Nǐ huì shuō Xībóláiyǔ ma?

Do you speak Hebrew?

Tatoeba

你们还望我们帮汤姆吗?

Nǐmen hái xīwàng wǒmen bāng Tāngmǔ ma?

Do you still want us to help Tom?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 希 (xī) mean in Chinese?
希 (xī) primarily means "to hope." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #508 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 希 have?
希 is written with 7 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 希?
The radical associated with 希 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.
What are the components of 希?
希 is composed of: 乂 (structural), 布 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱乂布 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 希?
Common words with 希 include: 希望 (xī wàng, "to hope"); 希腊 (xī là, "Greece"); 希特勒 (xī tè lè, "Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)"); 希尔 (xī ěr, "Hill (name)"); 希拉里 (xī lā lǐ, "Hillary (name)"). There are over 86 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 希 (xī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xī: 吸 (to breathe), 西 (the West), 息 (breath), 习 ((bound form) to practice), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 希 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 希 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.