悬 (xuán): to hang or suspend, to worry, public announcement

悬 (xuán) is a Chinese character meaning “to hang or suspend.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 县 (structural) and 心 (structural). It ranks #1859 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 悬 pride 心  in one's country 县, expressed by a flag; 县 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to hang or suspend
  2. to worry
  3. public announcement

Etymology & Origin

悬

ideographicPride 心  in one's country 县, expressed by a flag; 县 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿱县心 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
悬崖nounxuán yáprecipice
悬赏verbxuán shǎngto offer a reward
悬念nounxuán niànsuspense in a movie, play etc
悬案nounxuán ànunresolved question
悬挂verbxuán guàto suspend
悬浮verbxuán fúto float (in the air etc)
悬而未决phrasexuán ér wèi jué(idiom) pending a decision
悬殊adjectivexuán shūvastly different
口若悬河phrasekǒu ruò xuán hémouth like a torrent (idiom)
悬停verbxuán tíngto hover (helicopter, computer mouse etc)
悬空verbxuán kōngto hang in the air
悬崖勒马phrasexuán yá lè mǎlit. to rein in the horse at the edge of the precipice (idiom)
悬雍垂nounxuán yōng chuíuvula (biology)
悬崖峭壁phrasexuán yá qiào bì(idiom) sheer cliffs and precipitous rock faces
倒悬verbdào xuánlit. to hang upside down
52
Total compounds
67
As first character
8
As last character
25
As middle character

悬 appears in 52 compound words: 67 as the first character, 8 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 悬 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

挂guà
0.66410,856 co-occurrences
魄pò
0.66310 co-occurrences
崖yá
0.6513,300 co-occurrences
钩gōu
0.536552 co-occurrences
赏shǎng
0.5161,295 co-occurrences
峭qiào
0.509356 co-occurrences
浮fú
0.5022,197 co-occurrences
疑yí
0.4972,426 co-occurrences
檐yán
0.497458 co-occurrences
轴zhóu
0.476812 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (16)

倒悬之急dào xuán zhī jíHSK 7+

lit. the crisis of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation; dire straits

phrase
倒悬之苦dào xuán zhī kǔHSK 7+

lit. the pain of being hanged upside down (idiom); fig. extremely critical situation; dire straits

phrase
倒悬之危dàoxuánzhīwēiHSK 7+

critical juncture; the brink of destruction; a danger which puts one in dire straits

phrase
解民倒悬jiě mín dào xuánHSK 7+

lit. to rescue the people from hanging upside down (idiom, from Mencius); to save the people from dire straits

phrase
口若悬河kǒuruòxuánhéHSK 7+

eloquent; glib; voluble; having the gift of the gab

phrase
明镜高悬míngjìnggāoxuánHSK 7+

perspicacious and impartial in judgment

phrase
秦镜高悬qín jìng gāo xuánHSK 7+

see 明鏡高懸|明镜高悬

phrase
天悬地隔tiān xuán dì géHSK 7+

see 天差地遠|天差地远

phrase
悬而未决xuán'érwèijuéHSK 7+

pending decision; yet to be settled or resolved

phrase
悬壶济世xuánhújìshìHSK 7+

to practice medicine and treat the sick

phrase
悬梁刺股xuánliángcìgǔHSK 7+

to study diligently

phrase
悬崖绝壁xuányájuébìHSK 7+

sheer precipices and overhanging rocks; perilous cliffs and precipices

phrase

Showing 12 of 16 idioms containing 悬.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

虽然失败了,但他悬不气馁,继续努力。

suī rán shī bài le , dàn tā xuán bù qì něi , jì xù nǔ lì .

Though he failed, he did not lose heart and continued to persevere.

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

1岁半幼童悬挂10楼窗外坠落 路人合力以大衣接住救命

1 suì bàn yòu tóng xuán guà 1 0 lóu chuāng wài zhuì luò lù rén gě lì yǐ dà yī jiē zhù jiù mìng

A one-and-a-half-year-old child hung from the window on the 10th floor and fell from the window, and passers-by worked together to catch him with a coat to save his life

WorldjournalFeb 2026

悬赏1万元 济南长21米、高7米“巨型鳌鱼...

xuán shǎng 1 wàn yuán jì nán cháng 2 1 mǐ , gāo 7 mǐ jù xíng 鳌 yú . . .

A reward of 10,000 yuan Jinan is 21 meters long and 7 meters high.

It之家Feb 2026

...简单:比亚迪详解澳洲车型本地化调校细节,悬架更硬更偏欧规设定

. . . jiǎn dān : bǐ yà dí xiáng jiě ào zhōu chē xíng běn dì huà diào jiào xì jié , xuán jià gēng yìng gēng piān ōu guī shè dìng

... Simple: BYD explains the details of the localization of Australian models in detail, and the suspension is stiffer and more European

百度新闻Feb 2026

广东一公司发帖“悬赏60万寻狗”,公司负责人称“赏..

guǎng dōng yī gōng sī fā tiē xuán shǎng 6 0 wàn xún gǒu , gōng sī fù zé rén chèn shǎng . .

A company in Guangdong posted a "reward of 600,000 dogs", and the person in charge of the company said that "reward:

百度新闻Feb 2026

一家三口大年初一被困浙江大罗山悬崖,8岁女童体温持..

yī jiā sān kǒu dà nián chū yī bèi kùn zhè jiāng dà luó shān xuán yá , 8 suì nǚ tóng tǐ wēn chí . .

A family of three was trapped on the cliffs of Daluoshan Mountain in Zhejiang Province on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and the 8-year-old girl had a temperature:

Tatoeba

他们一直爬到悬崖顶上。

Tāmen yīzhí pádào xuányá dǐng shàng.

They climbed to the top of a cliff.

Tatoeba

我不喜欢让事情悬而未决。

Wǒ bù xǐhuan ràng shìqing xuán'érwèijué.

I don't like to leave things up in the air.

Tatoeba

人们普遍认为悬挂式滑翔运动是危险的。

Rénmen pǔbiàn rènwéi xuánguàshìhuáxiáng yùndòng shì wēixiǎn de.

There is a tendency for people to think that hang gliding is dangerous.

Tatoeba

他的画被悬挂在墙上。

Tā de huà bèi xuánguà zài qiáng shàng.

His pictures were hung on the wall.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xuán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 悬 (xuán) mean in Chinese?
悬 (xuán) primarily means "to hang or suspend." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1859 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 悬 have?
悬 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 悬?
The radical associated with 悬 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 悬?
悬 is composed of: 县 (structural), 心 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱县心 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 悬?
Common words with 悬 include: 悬崖 (xuán yá, "precipice"); 悬赏 (xuán shǎng, "to offer a reward"); 悬念 (xuán niàn, "suspense in a movie, play etc"); 悬案 (xuán àn, "unresolved question"); 悬挂 (xuán guà, "to suspend"). There are over 52 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 悬 (xuán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xuán: 选 (to choose), 宣 (to declare (publicly)), 旋 (to revolve), 玄 (black), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 悬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 悬 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 悬 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.