兴 (xīng): to rise, to flourish, to become popular, to start, to encourage, to get up

兴 (xīng) is a Chinese character meaning “to rise.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺍ (structural), 一 (structural) and 八 (structural). It ranks #531 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to rise
  2. to flourish
  3. to become popular
  4. to start
  5. to encourage
  6. to get up

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 兴

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
高兴adjectivegāo xìnghappy1
兴趣nounxìng qùinterest (desire to know about sth)3
兴奋adjective/verbxīng fènexcited4
兴起verbxīng qǐto rise6
感兴趣verbgǎn xìng qùto be interested (in sth)3
新兴adjectivexīn xīng(of markets, industries, infectious diseases etc) rising6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
扫兴verbsǎo xìngto spoil things
即兴verbjí xìngimprovisation (in the arts)
兴奋剂nounxīng fèn jìstimulant
尽兴verbjìn xìngto enjoy oneself to the full
兴致nounxìng zhìmood
复兴verbfù xīngto revive
文艺复兴proper-nounwén yì fù xīngthe Renaissance
兴许adverbxīng xǔ(coll.) perhaps
兴高采烈phrasexìng gāo cǎi lièhappy and excited (idiom)
助兴verbzhù xìngto add to the fun
兴旺adjectivexīng wàngprosperous
兴头nounxìng toukeen interest
兴建verbxīng jiànto build
兴隆adjectivexīng lóngprosperous
兴盛verbxīng shèngto flourish
102
Total compounds
39
As first character
40
As last character
21
As middle character

兴 appears in 102 compound words: 39 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 21 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 兴 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

趣qù
0.65022,237 co-occurrences
奋fèn
0.5924,711 co-occurrences
绍shào
0.59010,162 co-occurrences
复fù
0.55119,142 co-occurrences
浓nóng
0.4521,314 co-occurrences
振zhèn
0.4454,451 co-occurrences
艺yì
0.4334,934 co-occurrences
建jiàn
0.43323,458 co-occurrences
县xiàn
0.4219,134 co-occurrences
岭lǐng
0.4161,506 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (21)

百废待兴bǎifèidàixīngHSK 7+

many abandoned or neglected tasks or projects are waiting to be undertaken

phrase
百废俱兴bǎifèijùxīngHSK 7+

all neglected tasks are being undertaken; all that was left undone is now being undertaken

phrase
多难兴邦duōnànxīngbāngHSK 7+

the numerous disasters may bring the people of a country together to revive the country

phrase
方兴未艾fāngxīngwèi'àiHSK 7+

to be ascendant or still growing

phrase
方兴未已fāng xīng wèi yǐHSK 5+

flourishing and still in the ascendant (idiom); rapidly expanding; still growing strong; on the up

phrase
人丁兴旺rén dīng xīng wàngHSK 7+

(idiom) to be a flourishing family with many descendants

phrase
生意兴隆shēngyixīnglóngHSK 7+

thriving and prosperous business or trade (often as a greeting)

phrase
望而兴叹wàng'érxīngtànHSK 7+

to look and sigh; to feel helpless; not to know what to do

phrase
望洋兴叹wàngyángxīngtànHSK 7+

to lament one's littleness in face of something vast and great; to feel powerless in face of a great task

phrase
文艺复兴Wényì FùxīngHSK 4+

the Renaissance; to become popular again

verb
兴都库什XīngdūkùshíHSK 5+

Hindu Kush (a mountain range in Afghanistan and Pakistan)

兴风作浪xīngfēngzuòlàngHSK 4+

to provoke incidents or trouble

phrase

Showing 12 of 21 idioms containing 兴.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这家企业正在兴起,吸引了大量投资者的关注。

Zhè jiā qǐyè zhèngzài xīngqǐ, xīyǐn le dàliàng tóuzī zhě de guānzhù.

This enterprise is rising and has attracted the attention of a large number of investors.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

【中环解密】日睡8小时被炒 投行分析师兴讼

zhōng huán jiě mì rì shuì 8 xiǎo shí bèi chǎo tóu háng fēn xī shī xīng sòng

【Central Decryption】Sleeping for 8 hours a day was fired and investment bank analysts filed a lawsuit

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

前州教育高官:神韵复兴传统的使命了不起

qián zhōu jiào yù gāo guān : shén yùn fù xīng chuán tǒng de shǐ mìng le bù qǐ

Former state education official: Shen Yun's mission to revive tradition is remarkable

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

公司老板钦佩神韵复兴传统:极具教育意义

gōng sī lǎo bǎn qīn pèi shén yùn fù xīng chuán tǒng : jí jù jiào yù yì yì

Company owners admire Shen Yun for reviving traditions: very educational

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

做白日梦?马斯克提太空兴建资料中心 奥特曼再呛“很荒谬”

zuò bái rì mèng ? mǎ sī kè tí tài kōng xīng jiàn zī liào zhōng xīn ào tè 曼 zài qiàng hěn huāng miù

Daydreaming? Musk mentioned the construction of a data center in space, and Ultraman choked again "It's ridiculous"

百度新闻Feb 2026

宇树科技王兴兴:今年宇树科技的目标出货量在1-2万....

yǔ shù kē jì wáng xīng xīng jīn nián yǔ shù kē jì de mù biāo chū huò liáng zài mò . . . .

Wang Xingxing of Yushu Technology: This year, Yushu Technology's target shipment volume is 10,000 to 20,000 units....

Tatoeba

你们对外语感兴趣吗?

Nǐmen duì wàiyǔ gǎn xìngqù ma?

Are you interested in foreign languages?

Tatoeba

你觉得他会对什么主题感兴趣?

Nǐ juéde tā huì duì shénme zhǔtí gǎn xìngqù?

What subject do you think he is interested in?

Tatoeba

你对日本音乐感兴趣吗?

Nǐ duì Rìběn yīnyuè gǎn xìngqù ma?

Are you interested in Japanese music?

Tatoeba

没头脑和不高兴做了什么事?

Méi tóunǎo hé bù gāoxìng zuò le shénmeshì?

What did Brainless and Unhappy do?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xīng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 兴 (xīng) mean in Chinese?
兴 (xīng) primarily means "to rise." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #531 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 兴 and 下?
兴 (xīng) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 兴 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 兴 have?
兴 is written with 6 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 兴?
The radical associated with 兴 is 八 (eight). This radical appears in many characters related to eight.
What are the components of 兴?
兴 is composed of: ⺍ (structural), 一 (structural), 八 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿳⺍一八 with a top-middle-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 兴?
Common words with 兴 include: 高兴 (gāo xìng, "happy"); 兴趣 (xìng qù, "interest (desire to know about sth)"); 兴奋 (xīng fèn, "excited"); 扫兴 (sǎo xìng, "to spoil things"); 即兴 (jí xìng, "improvisation (in the arts)"). There are over 102 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 兴 (xīng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xīng: 性 (nature, gender), 形 (to appear), 星 (star), 型 (type, model), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 兴 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 兴 and the traditional form is 興.

Practice writing 兴 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.