喧 (xuān): clamor, noise

喧 (xuān) is a Chinese character meaning “clamor.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 宣 (phonetic). It ranks #2617 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 喧 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 口 mouth12 strokesFrequency #2617口 semantic宣 phonetic

Definitions

  1. clamor
  2. noise

Etymology & Origin

喧

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口宣 (layout: left-right)

Components:口semantic宣phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
喧闹xuān nàoto make a noise
喧嚣xuān xiāoto clamor
喧哗xuān huáhubbub
喧宾夺主xuān bīn duó zhǔlit. the voice of the guest overwhelms that of the host (idiom)
喧哗与骚动xuān huá yǔ sāo dòngThe Sound and the Fury (novel by William Faulkner 威廉·福克納|威廉·福克纳[Wei1 lian2 · Fu2 ke4 na4])
喧呼xuān hūto shout loudly
喧扰xuān rǎoto disturb by noise
喧腾xuān téngto make a tumult
8
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

喧 appears in 8 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 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 喧 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

嚣xiāo
0.7241,002 co-occurrences
哗huā
0.704954 co-occurrences
嚷rǎng
0.665354 co-occurrences
闹nào
0.6421,134 co-occurrences
嘈cáo
0.47654 co-occurrences
骚sāo
0.438144 co-occurrences
噪zào
0.431162 co-occurrences
吵chǎo
0.40996 co-occurrences
鼓gǔ
0.406426 co-occurrences
尘chén
0.36848 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

喧宾夺主xuānbīnduózhǔHSK 7+

a minor issue takes precedence over a major one; a minor player upstages the main attraction

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请喧下这杯茶，解解渴再继续工作。

qǐng xuān xià zhè bēi chá , xiè xiè kě zài jì xù gōng zuò .

Please pour yourself a cup of tea to quench your thirst before continuing your work.

SmzdmApr 2026

逃离喧嚣,来大观湿地享受慢时光!

táo lí xuān xiāo , lái dà guàn shī dì xiǎng shòu màn shí guāng !

NewtalkApr 2026

桃猿3球员深夜喧哗惹议 球团罚款惩处并严正告诫

táo 猿 3 qiú yuán shēn yè xuān huā rě yì qiú tuán fá kuǎn chéng chǔ bìng yán zhèng gào jiè

Character Family

口 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mouth radical

啊a哎āi哀āi唉āi叭bā吧ba哺bǔ嘈cáo唱chàng嘲cháo

Related Characters

口kǒu叫jiào右yòu号hào吃chī同tóng名míng后hòu吗ma吧ba

Homophones — Characters pronounced xuān

暄xuān宣xuān玄xuán悬xuán旋xuán选xuǎn炫xuàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 喧 (xuān) mean in Chinese?
喧 (xuān) primarily means "clamor." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2617 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 喧 have?
喧 is written with 12 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 喧?
The radical associated with 喧 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 喧?
喧 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 宣 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口宣 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 喧?
Common words with 喧 include: 喧闹 (xuān nào, "to make a noise"); 喧嚣 (xuān xiāo, "to clamor"); 喧哗 (xuān huá, "hubbub"); 喧宾夺主 (xuān bīn duó zhǔ, "lit. the voice of the guest overwhelms that of the host (idiom)"); 喧哗与骚动 (xuān huá yǔ sāo dòng, "The Sound and the Fury (novel by William Faulkner 威廉·福克納|威廉·福克纳[Wei1 lian2 · Fu2 ke4 na4])"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 喧 (xuān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xuān: 暄 (genial and warm), 宣 (to declare (publicly)), 玄 (black), 悬 (to hang or suspend), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 喧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 喧 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 喧 with real-time feedback

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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.