(xǐng): to wake up, to be awake, to become aware

(xǐng) is a Chinese character meaning “to wake up.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1074 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, wine. Its radical form (wine) appears in many related characters such as (pèi, to join), (suān, sour), (zuì, intoxicated).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to wake up
  2. to be awake
  3. to become aware

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwine

Decomposition: ⿰酉星 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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
verbtí xǐngto remind4
adjective/verbqīng xǐngclear-headed6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xǐng láito waken
jiào xǐngto awaken
huàn xǐngto wake sb
sū xǐngto come to
xǐng wùto come to oneself
xǐng mùeye-grabbing (headline)
jīng xǐngto rouse
hūn mí bù xǐngto remain unconscious
jué xǐngto awaken
shuì xǐngto wake up
xǐng jiǔto dissipate the effects of alcohol
jǐng xǐngto be alert
yī jiào xǐng láito wake up from a sleep
zì rán xǐngto wake up naturally (without an alarm)
rén jiān qīng xǐng(neologism c. 2021) to keep one's senses
37
Total compounds
22
As first character
62
As last character
16
As middle character

appears in 37 compound words: 22 as the first character, 62 as the last, and 16 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.

huàn
0.6297,041 co-occurrences
jué
0.55210,332 co-occurrences
hūn
0.5134,656 co-occurrences
0.50043,610 co-occurrences
0.4833,552 co-occurrences
shuì
0.4824,213 co-occurrences
qīng
0.43616,878 co-occurrences
chǎo
0.4351,043 co-occurrences
0.4225,178 co-occurrences
mián
0.4221,644 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

fā rén shēn xǐngHSK 4+

variant of 發人深省|发人深省[fa1 ren2 shen1 xing3]

phrase
hūn mí bù xǐngHSK 7+

to remain unconscious

phrase
jiào xǐng fú wùHSK 4+

morning call; wake-up call (hotel service)

phrase
Xǐngshì HéngyánHSK 7+

Stories to Awaken the World

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

xǐng zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character for "wake up" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...盆在即老公睡翻!产妇苦笑“东西丢光都叫不” 过来人:必带枪

. . . pén zài jí lǎo gōng shuì fān ! chǎn fù kǔ xiào dōng xī diū guāng dōu jiào bù xǐng guò lái rén : bì dài qiāng

... The basin is about to fall asleep! The mother smiled bitterly, "I can't wake up even if I lose everything" People: You must bring a gun

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

今年首例CO夺命案!土城11岁女童叫不 屋内7人“隔天全送医”

jīn nián shǒu lì C O duó mìng àn ! tǔ chéng 1 1 suì nǚ tóng jiào bù xǐng wū nèi 7 rén gé tiān quán sòng yī

The first CO fatal case this year! An 11-year-old girl in Tucheng couldn't wake up, and 7 people in the house were "all sent to the hospital the next day"

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

美最高法院这一槌 能敲赖政府?

měi zuì gāo fǎ yuàn zhè yī 槌 néng qiāo xǐng lài zhèng fǔ ?

Can the gavel of the U.S. Supreme Court wake up the Lai government?

LtnFeb 2026

桃连区高中免试入学模拟分发出炉 教局提:正式选填务必填满

táo lián qū gāo zhōng miǎn shì rù xué mó nǐ fēn fā chū lú jiào jú tí xǐng : zhèng shì xuǎn tián wù bì tián mǎn

Taolian District High School Exemption Admission Simulation Distribution Furnace The Education Bureau reminds: The official selection must be filled

EttodayFeb 2026

...商是谁”答不出来坚持要汇40万 万华警打诈骗话术

. . . shāng shì shéi dā bù chū lái jiān chí yāo huì 4 0 wàn wàn huá jǐng dǎ xǐng zhà piàn huà shù

... Who is the business?" can't answer and insists on remitting 400,000 yuan, and the Wanhua police wake up the fraud rhetoric

Tatoeba

被闹钟唤没有被鸟唤的好。

Bèi nàozhōng huànxǐng méiyǒu bèi niǎo huànxǐng de hǎo.

Much better to be woken by the birds than by an alarm.

Tatoeba

"每秒六便士" 鲍勃提她。

"Měi miǎo liù biànshì" Bàobó tíxǐng tā.

"Six pence per second," Bob reminds her.

Tatoeba

乔丹先生突然了。

Qiáodān xiānsheng tūrán xǐng le.

Mr Jordan woke up suddenly.

Tatoeba

汤姆必须提玛丽喂狗。

Tāngmǔ bìxū tíxǐng Mǎlì wèi gǒu.

Tom had to remind Mary to feed the dog.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xǐng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 醒 (xǐng) mean in Chinese?
醒 (xǐng) primarily means "to wake up." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1074 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 醒 and 下?
醒 (xǐng) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 醒 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 醒 have?
醒 is written with 16 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 醒?
The radical associated with 醒 is 酉 (wine). This radical appears in many characters related to wine.
What are the components of 醒?
醒 is composed of: 酉 (semantic), 星 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰酉星 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 醒?
Common words with 醒 include: 提醒 (tí xǐng, "to remind"); 清醒 (qīng xǐng, "clear-headed"); 醒来 (xǐng lái, "to waken"); 叫醒 (jiào xǐng, "to awaken"); 唤醒 (huàn xǐng, "to wake sb"). There are over 37 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 醒 (xǐng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xǐng: 猩 (ape), 腥 (fishy (smell)), 星 (star), 刑 (punishment), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 醒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 醒 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.