(xiū): to decorate, to embellish, to repair

(xiū) is a Chinese character meaning “to decorate.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #740 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hair. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to decorate
  2. to embellish
  3. to repair

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichair

Decomposition: ⿱攸彡 (layout: top-bottom)

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
verbxiū lǐto repair4
verbxiū gǎito amend5
verbxiū fùto restore6
verbzhuāng xiūto decorate5
verbwéi xiūmaintenance (of equipment)5
verbxiū jiànto build5
verbxiū dìngto revise6
verbxuǎn xiū(at a school) to take as an elective6
verbbǎo xiūto promise to keep sth in good repair6
adjectivebì xiū(of an academic course) required6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xiū hǎoto repair (sth broken)
xiū nǚnun or sister (of the Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox churches)
xiū dào yuànmonastery
xiū bǔto mend
xiū chēto repair a bike (car etc)
xiū zhèngto revise
xiū jiǎnto prune
xiū shìmember of religious order
zhǔ xiū(education) to major in
xiū shìto decorate
zhěng xiūto repair
xiū zhěngto spruce up
dà xiūoverhaul
xiū xíngto devote oneself to spiritual development (esp. Buddhism or Daoism)
fān xiūto rebuild (house or road)
100
Total compounds
61
As first character
35
As last character
4
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 61 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 4 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.

dìng
0.56846,158 co-occurrences
gǎi
0.511209,519 co-occurrences
0.50176,866 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.478170,808 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.462188,652 co-occurrences
yuàn
0.446122,262 co-occurrences
wéi
0.44354,646 co-occurrences
àn
0.43767,986 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.42814,124 co-occurrences
liàn
0.4274,848 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

ÀodéxiūsīHSK 7+

Odysseus

bùxiūbiānfúHSK 4+

to not care about one's appearance; to be slovenly in dress and manner; to be unkempt

phrase
dǒusīpīxiūHSK 5+

to fight selfishness and criticize revisionism

phrase
niánjiǔshīxiūHSK 4+

to have not been repaired for many years; to be worn down by years of non-repair; to have fallen into disrepair

phrase
XiūxīdǐdéHSK 7+

Thucydides

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

品很好,在村里很受尊敬。

tā xiū pǐn hěn hǎo , zài cūn lǐ hěn shòu zūn jìng .

He is a man of high moral character and is highly respected in the village.

WorldjournalFeb 2026

米兰大教堂雕像 赞助复便可有条件借展

mǐ lán dà jiào táng diāo xiàng zàn zhù xiū fù biàn kě yǒu tiáo jiàn jiè zhǎn

Statues of Milan Cathedral can be loaned conditionally if they sponsor the restoration

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

经济日报社论/台美对等贸易协定的误判与

jīng jì rì bào shè lùn tái měi duì děng mào yì xié dìng de wù pàn yǔ xiū zhèng

Economic Daily Editorial/Misjudgment and Amendment of the Taiwan-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

新闻中的法律/遗赠税法 两议题聚焦

xīn wén zhōng de fǎ lǜ yí zèng shuì xiū fǎ liǎng yì tí jù jiāo

The law/bequest tax amendment in the news focuses on two issues

工商時報Feb 2026

7千万复儒考棚变特卖会场!挨轰糟蹋古迹 市府称...

7 qiān wàn xiū fù rú kǎo péng biàn tè mài huì chǎng ! āi hōng zāo tà gǔ jì shì fǔ chèn . . .

70 million repaired Confucian examination shed into a special sale venue! The city government said...

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

曹观友:MRT接管后订路线 槟轻快铁依法展开订谘询

cáo guàn yǒu : M R T jiē guǎn hòu xiū dìng lù xiàn 槟 qīng kuài tiě yī fǎ zhǎn kāi xiū dìng 谘 xún

Cao Guanyou: After the MRT takes over, the route will be revised The Penang Light Rail will launch a consultation on revision in accordance with the law

Tatoeba

你为什么不把摩托车拿去理?

Nǐ wèi shénme bù bǎ mótuōchē ná qù xiūlǐ?

Why don't you have your motorcycle fixed up?

Tatoeba

剪过苹果树吗?

Nǐ xiūjiǎn guo píngguǒ shù ma?

Did you trim the apple trees?

Tatoeba

妈妈叫我剪草坪。

Māma jiào wǒ xiūjiǎn cǎopíng.

Mother told me to mow the lawn.

Tatoeba

这张椅子需要理。

Zhè zhāng yǐzi xūyào xiūlǐ.

This chair has to be fixed.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xiū

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 修 (xiū) mean in Chinese?
修 (xiū) primarily means "to decorate." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #740 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 修 and 悠?
修 (xiū) and 悠 (yōu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 亻 vs 忄 (same 攸 component).
How many strokes does 修 have?
修 is written with 10 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 修?
The radical associated with 修 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 修?
修 is composed of: 攸 (phonetic), 彡 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱攸彡 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 修?
Common words with 修 include: 修好 (xiū hǎo, "to repair (sth broken)"); 修女 (xiū nǚ, "nun or sister (of the Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox churches)"); 修理 (xiū lǐ, "to repair"); 修改 (xiū gǎi, "to amend"); 修复 (xiū fù, "to restore"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 修 (xiū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xiū: 休 (to rest), 羞 (shy), 朽 (rotten), 秀 ((bound form) refined), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 修 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 修 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.