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

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

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

醒

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 醒

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
提醒verbtí xǐngto remind4
清醒adjective/verbqīng xǐngclear-headed6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
醒来verbxǐng láito waken
叫醒verbjiào xǐngto awaken
唤醒verbhuàn xǐngto wake sb
苏醒sū xǐngto come to
醒悟verbxǐng wùto come to oneself
醒目adjectivexǐng mùeye-grabbing (headline)
惊醒verbjīng xǐngto rouse
昏迷不醒hūn mí bù xǐngto remain unconscious
觉醒verbjué xǐngto awaken
睡醒verbshuì xǐngto wake up
醒酒verbxǐng jiǔto dissipate the effects of alcohol
警醒verbjǐng xǐngto be alert
一觉醒来yī jiào xǐng láito wake up from a sleep
自然醒verbzì rán xǐngto wake up naturally (without an alarm)
人间清醒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

醒 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 醒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

唤huàn
0.5922,357 co-occurrences
昏hūn
0.5061,552 co-occurrences
提tí
0.49914,691 co-occurrences
觉jué
0.4803,488 co-occurrences
悟wù
0.4761,184 co-occurrences
睡shuì
0.4481,434 co-occurrences
吵chǎo
0.432359 co-occurrences
清qīng
0.4305,626 co-occurrences
迷mí
0.4161,726 co-occurrences
眠mián
0.416548 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

发人深醒fā rén shēn xǐngHSK 4+

variant of 發人深省|发人深省

phrase
昏迷不醒hūn mí bù xǐngHSK 7+

to remain unconscious

phrase
叫醒服务jiào xǐng fú wùHSK 4+

morning call; wake-up call (hotel service)

phrase
醒世恒言Xǐngshì HéngyánHSK 7+

Stories to Awaken the World

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

醒字虽然难写,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“东西丢光都叫不醒” 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岁女童叫不醒 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 能敲醒赖政府?

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 教局提醒: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 万华警打醒诈骗话术

. . . 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

被闹钟唤醒没有被鸟唤醒的好。

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" 鲍勃提醒她。

"Měi miǎo liù biànshì" Bàobó tíxǐng tā.

"Six pence per second," Bob reminds her.

Tatoeba

乔丹先生突然醒了。

Qiáodān xiānsheng tūrán xǐng le.

Mr Jordan woke up suddenly.

Tatoeba

汤姆必须提醒玛丽喂狗。

Tāngmǔ bìxū tíxǐng Mǎlì wèi gǒu.

Tom had to remind Mary to feed the dog.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 酉 (wine) component

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)), 性 (nature, gender), 形 (to appear), 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 醒 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.