絮 (xù): cotton wadding, fig. padding, long-winded

絮 (xù) is a Chinese character meaning “cotton wadding.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 如 (phonetic) and 糸 (semantic). It ranks #2812 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 絮 silk. Its radical form 纟 (silk) appears in many related characters such as 系 (xì, to connect), 累 (lěi, to accumulate), 绍 (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 纟 silk9 strokesFrequency #2812如 phonetic糸 semantic

Definitions

  1. cotton wadding
  2. fig. padding
  3. long-winded

Etymology & Origin

絮

pictophoneticsilk

Decomposition: ⿱如糸 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:如phonetic糸semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
花絮huā xù(news) tidbits
絮叨xù daolong-winded
絮絮叨叨xù xu dāo dāolong-winded
棉絮mián xùcotton wadding
金玉其外，败絮其中jīn yù qí wài , bài xù qí zhōnggilded exterior, shabby and ruined on the inside (idiom)
金玉其表，败絮其中jīn yù qí biǎo , bài xù qí zhōnggilded exterior, shabby and ruined on the inside (idiom)
兰因絮果lán yīn xù guǒstarts well but ends in separation (of marital relations)
幕后花絮mù hòu huā xù(cinema, TV) behind-the-scenes footage
絮状物xù zhuàng wùfloccule
絮说xù shuōto chatter endlessly
絮片xù piànfloccule
絮语xù yǔto chatter incessantly
絮球xù qiúball of fluff (containing seeds), e.g. a dandelion clock
败絮bài xùruined
絮嘴xù zuǐto chatter endlessly
22
Total compounds
55
As first character
32
As last character
14
As middle character

絮 appears in 22 compound words: 55 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 14 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 絮 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

花huā
0.63123,592 co-occurrences
幕mù
0.5797,878 co-occurrences
叨dāo
0.562312 co-occurrences
歇xiē
0.4961,104 co-occurrences
棉mián
0.470696 co-occurrences
拍pāi
0.4472,442 co-occurrences
柳liǔ
0.417810 co-occurrences
凝níng
0.391360 co-occurrences
咏yǒng
0.36878 co-occurrences
摄shè
0.350384 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

兰因絮果lán yīn xù guǒHSK 7+

starts well but ends in separation (of marital relations)

phrase
絮絮叨叨xùxudāodāoHSK 7+

long-winded; talking endlessly; jabbering

adjective

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个絮字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě xù zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "絮" is related to its radical.

Ign中国Mar 2026

...死亡搁浅2:冥滩之上》“生日快乐”动捕花絮

. . . sǐ wáng gē qiǎn 2 : míng tān zhī shàng shēng rì kuài lè dòng bǔ huā xù

東方日報Mar 2026

分享《GO》MV花絮照 Jisoo露腰透Bra吸Like

fēn xiǎng G O M V huā xù zhào J i s o o lù yāo tòu B r a xī L i k e

Jisoo Shares Behind-the-Scenes Photos from "GO" Music Video; Her Midriff and Bra Straps Draw Likes

Character Family

纟 Radical Family — Characters sharing the silk radical

繁fán紧jǐn紊wěn系xì紫zǐ给gěi红hóng级jí经jīng累lěi

Related Characters

系xì累lěi绍shào给gěi红hóng级jí纸zhǐ练liàn组zǔ经jīng

Homophones — Characters pronounced xù

须xū虚xū墟xū需xū徐xú许xǔ旭xù序xù绪xù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 絮 (xù) mean in Chinese?
絮 (xù) primarily means "cotton wadding." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2812 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 絮 and 恕?
絮 (xù) and 恕 (shù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 纟 vs 忄 (same 如 component).
How many strokes does 絮 have?
絮 is written with 9 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 絮?
The radical associated with 絮 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 絮?
絮 is composed of: 如 (phonetic), 糸 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱如糸 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 絮?
Common words with 絮 include: 花絮 (huā xù, "(news) tidbits"); 絮叨 (xù dao, "long-winded"); 絮絮叨叨 (xù xu dāo dāo, "long-winded"); 棉絮 (mián xù, "cotton wadding"); 金玉其外，败絮其中 (jīn yù qí wài , bài xù qí zhōng, "gilded exterior, shabby and ruined on the inside (idiom)"). There are over 22 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 絮 (xù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xù: 须 (must), 虚 (emptiness), 墟 (ruins), 需 (to need), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 絮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 絮 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.