(xiàng): back of neck, item, thing

(xiàng) is a Chinese character meaning “back of neck.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #571 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, head. Its radical form (page) appears in many related characters such as (xié, head), (shùn, to obey), (, must).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. back of neck
  2. item
  3. thing

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichead

Decomposition: ⿰工页 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
nounxiàng mùitem5
nounxiàng liànnecklace6
nounshì xiàngmatter6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
qiáng xiàngkey strength
xiàng quānnecklace
jiǎng xiàngaward
xuǎn xiàngoption
kuǎn xiàngfunds
ruò xiàngone's weak area
dān xiàngsingle-item
zhuān xiàngspecial
duō xiàng shì(math.) polynomial
jìn xiangincome
lì xiàngto launch a project
yì xiàngsense (of a word)
jǐng xiàngneck
èr xiàng shìtwo items
zá xiàngmiscellaneous
65
Total compounds
20
As first character
46
As last character
34
As middle character

appears in 65 compound words: 20 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 34 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.

0.685556,242 co-occurrences
jiǎng
0.645158,869 co-occurrences
gāi
0.44861,992 co-occurrences
0.43711,208 co-occurrences
huò
0.43337,446 co-occurrences
zhè
0.43167,014 co-occurrences
sài
0.41245,096 co-occurrences
róng
0.41011,454 co-occurrences
xuǎn
0.40130,498 co-occurrences
0.39670,122 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

shíxiàng quánnéngHSK 4+

decathlon; all-round; being a jack of all trades

nounadjective
tiěrén sān xiàngHSK 4+

triathlon

noun
xiàngshàngréntóuHSK 4+

human head

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men xiàng zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "项."

99 健康网Feb 2026

...戴震动棒晚上一直穿会坏吗?这些使用注意事要了解

. . . dài zhèn dòng bàng wǎn shàng yī zhí chuān huì huài ma ? zhè xiē shǐ yòng zhù yì shì xiàng yāo le jiě

... Does wearing a vibrator all the time at night break it? These precautions should be understood

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

考文垂:期待“为奥运喝彩”目组持续发挥文化桥梁作用

kǎo wén chuí : qī dài wéi ào yùn hē cǎi xiàng mù zǔ chí xù fā huī wén huà qiáo liáng zuò yòng

Coventry: We look forward to the "Cheers for the Olympics" project team continuing to play a cultural bridge

三立新聞網Feb 2026

强生扩大高附加价值品 接单动能曝光!

qiáng shēng kuò dà gāo fù jiā jià zhí pǐn xiàng jiē dān dòng néng pù guāng !

Johnson & Johnson expands high value-added items and exposes the momentum of receiving orders!

StheadlineFeb 2026

伊朗局势|伊媒:一旦开战特朗普家族在中东目将成攻击目标

yī lǎng jú shì yī méi : yī dàn kāi zhàn tè lǎng pǔ jiā zú zài zhōng dōng xiàng mù jiāng chéng gōng jī mù biāo

Iranian media: Once the war starts, the Trump family's project in the Middle East will be the target

百度新闻Feb 2026

大理消防开展防火专行动:踏查重点林区,对高火险区..

dà lǐ xiāo fáng kāi zhǎn fáng huǒ zhuān xiàng háng dòng : tà chá chóng diǎn lín qū , duì gāo huǒ xiǎn qū . .

Dali Fire Protection carried out special fire prevention actions: inspected key forest areas and conducted high-fire risk areas:

Tatoeba

十支队伍竞逐奖

Shí zhīduì wǔ jìngzhú jiǎngxiàng.

Ten teams competed for the prize.

Tatoeba

公司放弃了那个目。

Gōngsī fàngqì le nàge xiàngmù.

The company abandoned that project.

Tatoeba

这个目我大致了解。

Zhège xiàngmù wǒ dàzhì liǎojiě.

I know about this project for the most part.

Tatoeba

工作未必容易。

Zhè xiàng gōngzuò wèibì róngyì.

This work is not necessarily easy.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 项 (xiàng) mean in Chinese?
项 (xiàng) primarily means "back of neck." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #571 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 项 and 前?
项 (xiàng) and 前 (qián) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 项 (back) vs 前 (front).
How many strokes does 项 have?
项 is written with 9 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 项?
The radical associated with 项 is 页 (page). This radical appears in many characters related to page.
What are the components of 项?
项 is composed of: 工 (phonetic), 页 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰工页 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 项?
Common words with 项 include: 项目 (xiàng mù, "item"); 项链 (xiàng liàn, "necklace"); 强项 (qiáng xiàng, "key strength"); 项圈 (xiàng quān, "necklace"); 奖项 (jiǎng xiàng, "award"). There are over 65 compound words containing this character.
Is 项 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 项 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.