玄 (xuán): black, mysterious
玄 (xuán) is a Chinese character meaning “black.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亠 (structural) and 幺 (structural). It ranks #1701 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Definitions
- black
- mysterious
Stroke Order
Practice writing 玄 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 玄机noun | xuán jī | profound theory (in Daoism and Buddhism) |
| 玄乎adjective | xuán hū | unreliable |
| 玄妙adjective | xuán miào | mysterious |
| 故弄玄虚phrase | gù nòng xuán xū | deliberately mystifying |
| 玄武岩noun | xuán wǔ yán | (geology) basalt |
| 玄学proper-noun | xuán xué | Wei and Jin philosophical school amalgamating Daoist and Confucian ideals |
| 玄之又玄phrase | xuán zhī yòu xuán | mystery within a mystery |
| 玄孙noun | xuán sūn | great-great-grandson |
| 玄武门之变 | xuán wǔ mén zhī biàn | Xuanwu gate coup of June 626 in early Tang, in which Li Shimin 李世民 killed his brothers, seized the throne from his fa... |
| 天地玄黄 | tiān dì xuán huáng | first line of the Thousand Character Classic 千字文 |
| 九天玄女 | jiǔ tiān xuán nǚ | Xuan Nü, a fairy in Chinese mythology |
| 玄武区 | xuán wǔ qū | Xuanwu, a district of Nanjing City 南京市, Jiangsu |
| 玄理 | xuán lǐ | profound theory |
| 玄关noun | xuán guān | entrance hall |
| 玄色noun | xuán sè | black (without gloss) |
玄 appears in 38 compound words: 71 as the first character, 8 as the last, and 21 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 玄 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (4)
Example Sentences
玄字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。
xuán zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .
The character "玄" has different usages in different contexts.
...股周一迎终极考验?唯一开盘市场V型反转藏玄机
. . . gǔ zhōu yī yíng zhōng jí kǎo yàn ? wéi yī kāi pán shì chǎng V xíng fǎn zhuǎn zàng xuán jī
... Stocks face the ultimate test on Monday? The only opening market V-shaped reversal hides the mystery
...英伟达成为“全球最大网络公司” 当中有何玄机?
. . . yīng wěi dá chéng wéi quán qiú zuì dà wǎng lào gōng sī dāng zhōng yǒu hé xuán jī ?
... What is the mystery behind Nvidia becoming the "world's largest network company"?
Disney+天机试炼场|韩玄学综艺成亚洲收视第一 如灵异版达人骚
D i s n e y tiān jī shì liàn chǎng hán xuán xué zèng yì chéng yà zhōu shōu shì dì yī rú líng yì bǎn dá rén sāo
Disney+ Heavenly Secret Proving Ground|Han Xuanxue's variety show became the first in Asia to rate like a supernatural version of Talent
刮刮乐“夹心玄学”秒中万元!网友朝圣 员工揭内幕:别买...
guā guā lè jiā xīn xuán xué miǎo zhōng wàn yuán ! wǎng yǒu cháo shèng yuán gōng jiē nèi mù : bié mǎi . . .
Scratch card "sandwich metaphysics" won 10,000 yuan in seconds! Netizens pilgrimage employees reveal the inside story: Don't buy...
Character Family
玄 Radical Family — Characters sharing the dark radical
Related Characters
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 玄 (xuán) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 玄 and 白?
How many strokes does 玄 have?
What is the radical of 玄?
What are the components of 玄?
What are common words containing 玄?
What characters sound the same as 玄 (xuán)?
Is 玄 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 玄 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.