(): to continue, to replenish

() is a Chinese character meaning “to continue.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #552 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, thread. Its radical form (silk) appears in many related characters such as (, to connect), (lěi, to accumulate), (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to continue
  2. to replenish

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticthread

Decomposition: ⿰纟卖 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
verbjì xùto continue4
verbchí xùto continue5
verblián xùcontinuous5
nounshǒu xùprocedure5
verbyán xùto continue6
adverblù xùin turn5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hòu xùfollow-up
lián xù jùserialized drama
dài xùto be continued
xù jísequel
duàn duàn xù xùintermittent
lián xù xìngcontinuity
shǒu xù fèiservice charge
xù dìngto renew
jiē xùto follow
xù qiānto renew a contract
lián xù bù duàncontinuous
xù jiàextended leave
xù jièextended borrowing (e.g. library renewal)
xù piānsequel
gǒu wěi xù diāolit. to use a dog's tail as a substitute for sable fur (idiom)
66
Total compounds
36
As first character
27
As last character
36
As middle character

appears in 66 compound words: 36 as the first character, 27 as the last, and 36 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.

0.821306,947 co-occurrences
lián
0.665144,979 co-occurrences
chí
0.597189,150 co-occurrences
něi
0.58512 co-occurrences
0.55152,746 co-occurrences
0.49617 co-occurrences
yán
0.49142,356 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.46813 co-occurrences
duàn
0.44313,284 co-occurrences
hòu
0.44286,046 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

duànduànxùxùHSK 4+

intermittent; off and on; discontinuous; stop-go; stammering; disjointed; inarticulate

adjective
liánxùbùduànHSK 4+

to be continuous; to be unceasing

phrase
lùlùxùxùHSK 5+

continuously; one after another; bit by bit; in turn; successively; in succession

adverb
gǒuwěixùdiāoHSK 5+

to write a bad sequel to a fine work

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

合同到期后,双方决定签一年。

Hétong dàoqī hòu, shuāngfāng juédìng xù qiān yī nián.

After the contract expired, both parties decided to renew it for another year.

百度新闻Feb 2026

爱读书的工地大叔走红后第一个春节:继种地、看书,..

ài dòu shū de gōng dì dà shū zǒu hóng hòu dì yī gè chūn jié : jì xù zhǒng dì , kàn shū , . .

The first Spring Festival after the uncle on the construction site who loves to read became popular: continue to farm and read,..

百度新闻Feb 2026

国际贵金属价格持走高,现货黄金再度站上5000美..

guó jì guì jīn shǔ jiè gé chí xù zǒu gāo , xiàn huò huáng jīn zài dù zhàn shǎng měi . .

International precious metals prices continue to rise, spot gold again on the 5000 U.S. dollars...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...初二全国高速公路流量快速回升,午后车流持保持高..

. . . chū èr quán guó gāo sù gōng lù liú liáng kuài sù huí shēng , wǔ hòu chē liú chí xù bǎo chí gāo . .

... The first two days of the national highway traffic quickly rebounded, the afternoon traffic continued to remain high....

百度新闻Feb 2026

苏翊鸣第二滑平稳输出,继加油!

sū 翊 míng dì èr huá píng wěn shū chū , jì xù jiā yóu !

Su Yiming delivered a steady second run—keep it up!

百度新闻Feb 2026

雷军晒本人AI拜年图并发文:今天初二,继拜年,小..

léi jūn shài běn rén bài nián tú bìng fā wén jīn tiān chū èr , jì xù bài nián , xiǎo . .

Lei Jun shared his AI New Year greeting image and posted: "Today is the second day of the New Year. Continuing to send greetings, little..."

Tatoeba

这种症状在我身上将会持多久?

Zhèzhǒng zhēng zhuàng zài wǒ shēnshang jiānghuì chíxù duōjiǔ?

For how long will I continue to have these symptoms?

Tatoeba

价格还会继涨吗?

Jiàgé hái huì jìxù zhǎng ma?

Will the price keep going up?

Tatoeba

她母亲将继工作。

Tā mǔqīn jiāng jìxù gōngzuò.

Her mother will continue to work.

Tatoeba

我不可能继保持沈默了。

Wǒ bù kěnéng jìxù bǎochí chén mò le.

I can no longer remain silent.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 续 (xù) mean in Chinese?
续 (xù) primarily means "to continue." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #552 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 续 have?
续 is written with 11 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 续?
The radical associated with 续 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 续?
续 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 卖 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟卖 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 续?
Common words with 续 include: 继续 (jì xù, "to continue"); 持续 (chí xù, "to continue"); 连续 (lián xù, "continuous"); 手续 (shǒu xù, "procedure"); 延续 (yán xù, "to continue"). There are over 66 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 续 (xù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xù: 须 (must), 虚 (emptiness), 墟 (ruins), 需 (to need), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 续 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 续 and the traditional form is 續.

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.