徐 (xú): slowly, gently
徐 (xú) is a Chinese character meaning “slowly.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彳 (semantic) and 余 (phonetic). It ranks #1305 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 徐 step. Its radical form 彳 (step) appears in many related characters such as 很 (hěn, very), 得 (dé, to obtain), 往 (wǎng, to go (in a direction)).
Definitions
- slowly
- gently
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 徐 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 徐徐 | xú xú | slowly |
| 徐水区 | xú shuǐ qū | Xushui, a district of Baoding City 保定市[Bao3 ding4 Shi4], Hebei |
| 不疾不徐 | bù jí bù xú | neither too fast nor too slow (idiom) |
| 半老徐娘 | bàn lǎo xú niáng | middle-aged but still attractive woman |
| 徐娘半老 | xú niáng bàn lǎo | middle-aged but still attractive woman |
| 林则徐 | lín zé xú | Lin Zexu or Lin Tse-hsu "Commissioner Lin" (1785-1850), Qing official whose anti-opium activities led to first Opium ... |
| 徐行 | xú xíng | to walk slowly |
| 徐州市 | xú zhōu shì | Xuzhou, prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province 江蘇省|江苏省[Jiang1 su1 Sheng3] |
| 徐水 | xú shuǐ | see 徐水區|徐水区[Xu2 shui3 Qu1] |
| 徐家汇 | xú jiā huì | Xujiahui, an area in 徐匯區|徐汇区[Xu2 hui4 qu1], Xuhui district, central Shanghai |
| 清徐 | qīng xú | Qingxu county in Taiyuan 太原[Tai4 yuan2], Shanxi |
| 徐克 | xú kè | Tsui Hark (1951-), Chinese movie director and producer |
| 徐步 | xú bù | to stroll |
| 徐汇区 | xú huì qū | Xuhui district, central Shanghai |
| 徐光启 | xú guāng qǐ | Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician in the Ming dynasty |
徐 appears in 34 compound words: 85 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 6 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 徐 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (3)
Example Sentences
徐字虽然难写，但意思很有趣。
xú zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .
Although the character "徐" is difficult to write, its meaning is quite interesting.
国情报告统问统答?徐巧芯提“221”:赖不能拍拍屁股就走
guó qíng bào gào tǒng wèn tǒng dā ? xú qiǎo xīn tí 2 2 1 : lài bù néng pāi pāi pì gǔ jiù zǒu
Unified questions and answers to the national situation report? Xu Qiaoxin mentioned "221": Lai can't pat his butt and leave
蓝竹县长初选37制 徐吁停攻击 陈营:盼能言行一致、说到做到
lán zhú xiàn cháng chū xuǎn 3 7 zhì xú xū tíng gōng jī chén yíng : pàn néng yán háng yī zhì , shuō dào zuò dào
Lanzhu County Mayor Primary Election 37 System Xu Yu Stop Attacking Chen Ying: I hope to be consistent in words and deeds, and do what I say
Histotripsy共同发明人徐蓁获国际双料殊荣 周凯旋:科技与人性完美...
H i s t o t r i p s y gòng tóng fā míng rén xú 蓁 huò guó jì shuāng liào shū róng zhōu kǎi xuán : kē jì yǔ rén xìng wán měi . . .
Histotripsy co-inventor Xu Zhen won the international double award Zhou Kaixuan: Technology and human nature are perfect...
徐蓁获国际双料殊荣 周凯旋称Histotr...
xú 蓁 huò guó jì shuāng liào shū róng zhōu kǎi xuán chèn H i s t o t r . . .
Xu Zhen won the international double award Zhou Kaixuan called Histotr...
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 徐 (xú) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 徐 and 途?
How many strokes does 徐 have?
What is the radical of 徐?
What are the components of 徐?
What are common words containing 徐?
What characters sound the same as 徐 (xú)?
Is 徐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 徐 with real-time feedback
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