旭 (xù): dawn, rising sun

旭 (xù) is a Chinese character meaning “dawn.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 九 (phonetic) and 日 (semantic). It ranks #2663 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 旭 sun. Its radical form 日 (sun) appears in many related characters such as 日 (rì, sun, day), 早 (zǎo, early, morning), 时 (shí, time, hour).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 日 sun6 strokesFrequency #2663九 phonetic日 semantic

Definitions

  1. dawn
  2. rising sun

Etymology & Origin

旭

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿺九日 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Components:九phonetic日semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
旭日xù rìthe rising sun
圣德克旭贝里shèng dé kè xù bèi lǐ(Antoine de) Saint-Exupéry
张旭zhāng xùZhang Xu (probably early 8th century), Tang dynasty poet and calligrapher, most famous for his grass script 草書|草书
林旭lín xùLin Xu (1875-1898), one of the Six Gentlemen Martyrs 戊戌六君子[Wu4 xu1 Liu4 jun1 zi5] of the unsuccessful reform movement...
4
Total compounds
25
As first character
50
As last character
25
As middle character

旭 appears in 4 compound words: 25 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 25 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 旭 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

兀wù
0.5501,806 co-occurrences
川chuān
0.48613,542 co-occurrences
姜jiāng
0.4141,428 co-occurrences
辉huī
0.392684 co-occurrences
陈chén
0.3712,088 co-occurrences
烈liè
0.3692,046 co-occurrences
丘qiū
0.3661,140 co-occurrences
厉lì
0.365240 co-occurrences
徐xú
0.3641,632 co-occurrences
李lǐ
0.3624,524 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

旭出时分，渔民们已经出海捕鱼了。

xù chū shí fēn , yú mín men yǐ jīng chū hǎi bǔ yú le .

At dawn, the fishermen had already set out to sea to catch fish.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

布鲁斯威利罹患的额颞叶失智症 新旭开发的 Tau PET 显影剂能精准追踪

bù lǔ sī wēi lì 罹 huàn de é 颞 xié shī zhì zhèng xīn xù kāi fā de T a u P E T xiǎn yǐng jì néng jīng zhǔn zhuī zōng

Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia; the Tau PET tracer developed by NewSun can accurately track it

三立新聞網Mar 2026

旭然握滤材设备商机 EPS0.92创五年新...

xù rán wò lǜ cái shè bèi shāng jī E P S 0 . 9 2 chuàng wǔ nián xīn . . .

Xuran Seizes Opportunities in Filter Media Equipment; EPS Hits Five-Year Low of 0.92...

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

旭辉控股(00884)预告计入境外债务重组...

xù huī kòng gǔ ( 0 0 8 8 4 ) yù gào jì rù jìng wài zhài wù chóng zǔ . . .

CIFI Holdings (00884) announces plans to include an overseas debt restructuring...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

萧旭岑:国民党与全球民主国家想法相同 与大陆...

xiāo xù 岑 : guó mín dǎng yǔ quán qiú mín zhǔ guó jiā xiǎng fǎ xiāng tóng yǔ dà lù . . .

Xiao Xucen: The Kuomintang has the same idea as global democracies and the mainland...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

李栋旭见面会甜互动 郭书瑶笑嗨嗨全网炸

lǐ dòng xù jiàn miàn huì tián hù dòng guō shū 瑶 xiào 嗨 嗨 quán wǎng zhà

Li Dongxu's meeting was sweet and interactive, Guo Shuyao laughed and exploded

Character Family

日 Radical Family — Characters sharing the sun radical

暧ài暗àn昂áng晨chén春chūn晃huǎng晾liàng昧mèi暮mù暖nuǎn

Related Characters

日rì早zǎo时shí明míng星xīng昨zuó是shì晚wǎn春chūn晨chén

Homophones — Characters pronounced xù

须xū虚xū墟xū需xū徐xú许xǔ序xù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 旭 (xù) mean in Chinese?
旭 (xù) primarily means "dawn." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2663 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 旭 and 究?
旭 (xù) and 究 (jiū) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 日 vs 穴 (same 九 component).
How many strokes does 旭 have?
旭 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 旭?
The radical associated with 旭 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 旭?
旭 is composed of: 九 (phonetic), 日 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺九日 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 旭?
Common words with 旭 include: 旭日 (xù rì, "the rising sun"); 圣德克旭贝里 (shèng dé kè xù bèi lǐ, "(Antoine de) Saint-Exupéry"); 张旭 (zhāng xù, "Zhang Xu (probably early 8th century), Tang dynasty poet and calligrapher, most famous for his grass script 草書|草书"); 林旭 (lín xù, "Lin Xu (1875-1898), one of the Six Gentlemen Martyrs 戊戌六君子[Wu4 xu1 Liu4 jun1 zi5] of the unsuccessful reform movement..."). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 旭 (xù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xù: 须 (must), 虚 (emptiness), 墟 (ruins), 需 (to need), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 旭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 旭 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 旭 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.