(): sh, hush, to implore

() is a Chinese character meaning “sh.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2096 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sh
  2. hush
  3. to implore

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口于 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hū yùto call on (sb to do sth)
qì chuǎn xū xūto pant
cháng xū duǎn tànlong moan and short gasp (idiom)
qì xū xūto pant
yù qǐngto implore
hēi nú yù tiān lùUncle Tom's Cabin, translated and adapted by Lin Shu 林紓|林纾
xī xūvariant of 唏噓|唏嘘[xi1 xu1]
chuǎn xū xūto puff and blow
xū xūto pant
9
Total compounds
22
As first character
22
As last character
56
As middle character

appears in 9 compound words: 22 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 56 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.

0.78457,370 co-occurrences
chuǎn
0.470342 co-occurrences
0.40413 co-occurrences
bìng
0.3945,892 co-occurrences
zhòng
0.3921,704 co-occurrences
0.362384 co-occurrences
0.347828 co-occurrences
qǐng
0.340702 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.337348 co-occurrences
men
0.3361,764 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

qìchuǎnxūxūHSK 7+

to pant or gasp heavily; to be out of breath

phrase
chángxūduǎntànHSK 7+

to utter sighs and groans; to moan and groan

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

干舌燥地讲了两个小时,终于说服了大家。

tā xū gān jī zào dì jiǎng le liǎng gě xiǎo shí , zhōng yú shuō fú le dà jiā .

He talked for two hours until his throat was parched, finally winning everyone over.

LtnFeb 2026

韩国瑜蓝委让军购条例付委 国民党:一定支持但不...

hán guó 瑜 xū lán wěi ràng jūn gòu tiáo lì fù wěi guó mín dǎng : yī dìng zhī chí dàn bù . . .

Han Yu called on the Blue Committee to hand over the arms purchase regulations to the Kuomintang: must support but not...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

六旬妇认选举期间转贴呼杯葛选举贴文 判囚2月准缓刑1年半

liù xún fù rèn xuǎn jǔ qī jiān zhuǎn tiē hū xū bēi 葛 xuǎn jǔ tiē wén pàn qiú 2 yuè zhǔn huǎn xíng 1 nián bàn

A sixty-year-old woman who posted a call for a boycott of the election during the election was sentenced to two months in prison and given a one-and-a-half year probation

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

黄友凤警遵循指示 勿以服装为由拒报案

huáng yǒu fèng xū jǐng zūn xún zhǐ shì wù yǐ fú zhuāng wéi yóu jù bào àn

Huang Youfeng called on the police to follow the instructions and not to refuse to report the case on the grounds of clothing

StheadlineFeb 2026

儿童理财|校长及早建立良好理财习惯 家长必学将储蓄融入...

ér tóng lǐ cái jiào cháng xū jí zǎo jiàn lì liáng hǎo lǐ cái xí guàn jiā cháng bì xué jiāng chǔ xù róng rù . . .

Children's financial management|Principal calls for early establishment of good financial habits Parents must learn to integrate savings into...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

儿少性侵追诉 民团发起连署释宪修法并行

ér shǎo xìng qīn zhuī sù mín tuán fā qǐ lián shǔ xū shì xiàn xiū fǎ bìng háng

Child sexual assault prosecution Civil groups launched a joint petition calling for the interpretation of the constitution and the amendment of the law

Tatoeba

我们提出了请求支持的呼

Wǒmen tíchū le qǐngqiú zhīchí de hūyù.

We made an appeal for support.

Tatoeba

总统呼全国民众在对抗贫穷或疾病的时候,一定要团结一致。

Zǒngtǒng hūyù quánguó mínzhòng zài duìkàng pínqióng huò jíbìng de shíhou, yīdìngyào tuánjié yīzhì.

The president called on the people to unite in fighting poverty and disease.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 吁 (xū) mean in Chinese?
吁 (xū) primarily means "sh." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2096 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 吁 and 宇?
吁 (xū) and 宇 (yǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 宀 (same 于 component).
How many strokes does 吁 have?
吁 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 吁?
The radical associated with 吁 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 吁?
吁 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 于 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口于 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 吁?
Common words with 吁 include: 呼吁 (hū yù, "to call on (sb to do sth)"); 气喘吁吁 (qì chuǎn xū xū, "to pant"); 长吁短叹 (cháng xū duǎn tàn, "long moan and short gasp (idiom)"); 气吁吁 (qì xū xū, "to pant"); 吁请 (yù qǐng, "to implore"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 吁 (xū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xū: 须 (must), 虚 (emptiness), 墟 (ruins), 需 (to need), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 吁 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 吁 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.