(xiáng): to soar, to glide, (slang) shit

(xiáng) is a Chinese character meaning “to soar.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #2136 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, wings. Its radical form (feather) appears in many related characters such as (fān, to turn over), (, feather), 耀 (yào, brilliant).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to soar
  2. to glide
  3. (slang) shit

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwings

Decomposition: ⿰羊羽 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fēi xiángto circle in the air
huá xiángto glide
áo xiángto soar
huá xiáng jīglider
huá xiáng sǎnparaglider (equipment)
xiáng shícomplete and accurate
liú xiángLiu Xiang (1983-), Chinese gold-medal hurdler of the 2004 Olympic Games
xiáng ān qūXiang'an, a district of Xiamen City 廈門市|厦门市[Xia4 men2 Shi4], Fujian
lín xiáng qūLinxiang district of Lincang city 臨滄市|临沧市[Lin2 cang1 shi4], Yunnan
xuán guà shì huá xiáng jīhang-glider
xiáng huíto circle (in the sky)
gāo xiángGao Xiang (1688-1753), Qing dynasty painter
xiáng ānsee 翔安區|翔安区[Xiang2 an1 Qu1]
hè jūn xiángMike He (1983-), Taiwanese actor
xuán guà shì huá xiánghang-gliding
21
Total compounds
24
As first character
43
As last character
33
As middle character

appears in 21 compound words: 24 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 33 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.

sēn
0.59710 co-occurrences
fèng
0.57510,554 co-occurrences
huá
0.57216,572 co-occurrences
péng
0.4521,506 co-occurrences
fēi
0.4295,790 co-occurrences
0.413996 co-occurrences
mán
0.40796 co-occurrences
sǎn
0.406534 co-occurrences
chì
0.4021,221 co-occurrences
0.3974,470 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

luánxiáng fèngjíHSK 7+

gathering of talented people; galaxy of talent; super talented literary group

phrase
luánxiáng fèngzhùHSK 7+

flamboyant calligraphy; free and powerful strokes

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

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

The character xiang had different meanings in ancient Chinese.

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

大谷平代言赚破亿美元!超车老虎伍兹登顶 打球...

dà gǔ xiáng píng dài yán zhuàn pò yì měi yuán ! chāo chē lǎo hǔ wǔ zī dēng dǐng dǎ qiú . . .

Shohei Ohtani Earns Over $100 Million in Endorsement Deals! Overtakes Tiger Woods to Take the Top Spot...

LtnFeb 2026

MLB》洋基大物承认模仿大谷平! 狂炸超远怪力轰(影音)

M L B yáng jī dà wù chéng rèn mó fǎng dà gǔ xiáng píng ! kuáng zhà chāo yuǎn guài lì hōng ( yǐng yīn )

MLB" Yankees big man admits to imitating Shohei Ohtani! Bombing Super Far Monster Bombardment (Video)

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

经典赛/山川穗高分享大谷平怪力 张奕期待WBC对决

jīng diǎn sài shān chuān 穗 gāo fēn xiǎng dà gǔ xiáng píng guài lì zhāng 奕 qī dài W B C duì jué

Classic/Hotaka Yamakawa shares Shohei Ohtani's strange power Zhang Yi is looking forward to the WBC showdown

三立新聞網Feb 2026

独/富台指喷3% 周经曝台股红盘日走势

dú fù tái zhǐ pēn 3 zhōu jīng xiáng pù tái gǔ hóng pán rì zǒu shì

Unique/rich Taiwan index sprayed 3% Zhou Jingxiang exposed the daily trend of Taiwan stocks in the red market

LtnFeb 2026

...军火力全开!佐藤辉明猛打赏灌5打点、森下太开轰4打点 日本队首场实战痛宰软银

. . . jūn huǒ lì quán kāi ! zuǒ téng huī míng měng dǎ shǎng guàn 5 dǎ diǎn , sēn xià xiáng tài kāi hōng 4 dǎ diǎn rì běn duì shǒu chǎng shí zhàn tòng zǎi ruǎn yín

... The military firepower is in full swing! Teruaki Sato hit 5 RBIs, Shota Morishita hit 4 RBIs The Japanese team's first actual game slaughtered SoftBank

Tatoeba

你曾经梦想在天空飞吗?

Nǐ céngjīng mèngxiǎng zài tiānkōng fēixiáng ma?

Do you ever dream about flying through the sky?

Tatoeba

伊卡洛斯乘着自制的翅膀飞

Yīkǎluòsī chéng zhe zìzhì de chìbǎng fēixiáng.

Icarus flew on crafted wings.

Tatoeba

不像狗, 这只鹤从来没有梦想过飞

Bù xiàng gǒu, zhè zhī hè cóngláiméiyǒu mèngxiǎng guo fēixiáng.

The crane, unlike the dog, has never dreamed of flying.

Tatoeba

人们普遍认为悬挂式滑运动是危险的。

Rénmen pǔbiàn rènwéi xuánguàshìhuáxiáng yùndòng shì wēixiǎn de.

There is a tendency for people to think that hang gliding is dangerous.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiáng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 翔 (xiáng) mean in Chinese?
翔 (xiáng) primarily means "to soar." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2136 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 翔 and 洋?
翔 (xiáng) and 洋 (yáng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 羽 vs 氵 (same 羊 component).
How many strokes does 翔 have?
翔 is written with 12 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 翔?
The radical associated with 翔 is 羽 (feather). This radical appears in many characters related to feather.
What are the components of 翔?
翔 is composed of: 羊 (phonetic), 羽 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰羊羽 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 翔?
Common words with 翔 include: 飞翔 (fēi xiáng, "to circle in the air"); 滑翔 (huá xiáng, "to glide"); 翱翔 (áo xiáng, "to soar"); 滑翔机 (huá xiáng jī, "glider"); 滑翔伞 (huá xiáng sǎn, "paraglider (equipment)"). There are over 21 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 翔 (xiáng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiáng: 详 (detailed), 祥 (auspicious), 乡 (country or countryside), 相 (mutual, appearance). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 翔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 翔 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.