旋 (xuán): to revolve, a loop, a circle

旋 (xuán) is a Chinese character meaning “to revolve.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 方 (structural) and 疋 (structural). It ranks #1375 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 旋 an army 方 marching under a flag 疋. Its radical form 方 (square) appears in many related characters such as 方 (fāng, square), 旁 (páng, one side), 旅 (lǚ, trip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to revolve
  2. a loop
  3. a circle

Etymology & Origin

旋

ideographicAn army 方 marching under a flag 疋

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 旋

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
旋转verbxuán zhuǎnto rotate6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
旋律nounxuán lǜmelody
盘旋verbpán xuánto spiral
螺旋nounluó xuánspiral
旋风nounxuàn fēngwhirlwind
凯旋verbkǎi xuánto return in triumph
回旋verbhuí xuánvariant of 迴旋|回旋
周旋verbzhōu xuánto mix with others
螺旋桨nounluó xuán jiǎngpropeller
主旋律nounzhǔ xuán lǜ(music) theme
旋转门nounxuán zhuǎn ménrevolving door
旋钮nounxuán niǔknob (e.g. handle or radio button)
旋涡xuán wōspiral
斡旋verbwò xuánto mediate (a conflict etc)
气旋nounqì xuáncyclone
螺旋体nounluó xuán tǐSpirochaetes, phylum of extremophile bacteria
100
Total compounds
45
As first character
18
As last character
37
As middle character

旋 appears in 100 compound words: 45 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 37 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 旋 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

螺luó
0.68124,027 co-occurrences
桨jiǎng
0.6243,342 co-occurrences
殊shū
0.58214 co-occurrences
律lǜ
0.55319,728 co-occurrences
气qì
0.54815,750 co-occurrences
涡wō
0.5161,428 co-occurrences
凯kǎi
0.4782,663 co-occurrences
徐xú
0.47313 co-occurrences
转zhuǎn
0.47114,256 co-occurrences
热rè
0.4544,760 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

盘旋曲折pán xuán qū zhéHSK 6+

(idiom) (of a road etc) to wind circuitously

phrase
旋涡星系xuán wō xīng xìHSK 7+

spiral galaxy

phrase
祸不旋踵huò bù xuán zhǒngHSK 6+

trouble is never far away (idiom)

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing 旋.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

风车随着风旋转,发出吱呀吱呀的声音。

Fēngchē suízhe fēng xuánzhuǎn, fāchū zhīyā zhīyā de shēngyīn.

The windmill rotates with the wind, making creaking sounds.

StheadlineFeb 2026

...psy共同发明人徐蓁获国际双料殊荣 周凯旋:科技与人性完美结合的技术

. . . p s y gòng tóng fā míng rén xú 蓁 huò guó jì shuāng liào shū róng zhōu kǎi xuán : kē jì yǔ rén xìng wán měi jié gě de jì shù

... Xu Zhen, co-inventor of PSY, won the international double award Zhou Kaixuan: A technology that perfectly combines technology and human nature

StheadlineFeb 2026

徐蓁获国际双料殊荣 周凯旋称Histotripsy是科技与人性完美...

xú 蓁 huò guó jì shuāng liào shū róng zhōu kǎi xuán chèn H i s t o t r i p s y shì kē jì yǔ rén xìng wán měi . . .

Xu Zhen won the international double award Zhou Kaixuan said that Histotripsy is the perfect of technology and human nature...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

广角镜/基隆小提灯 飞天马PK旋转木马

guǎng jiǎo jìng jī lóng xiǎo tí dēng fēi tiān mǎ P K xuán zhuǎn mù mǎ

Wide-angle lens/Keelung lantern Flying Pegasus PK carousel

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

基隆小提灯 飞天马PK旋转木马

jī lóng xiǎo tí dēng fēi tiān mǎ P K xuán zhuǎn mù mǎ

Keelung lantern Flying Pegasus PK carousel

百度新闻Feb 2026

大湾区航空飞往台北航班遇大雾盘旋后折返,航司回应:..

dà wān ōu háng kōng fēi wǎng tái běi háng bān yù dà wù pán xuán hòu shé fǎn , háng sī huí yīng . .

The flight to Taipei of the Greater Bay Area Airline in the fog circled after turning back, the airline company responded:...

Tatoeba

种的是风,而收获的是旋风。

Zhǒng de shì fēng, ér shōuhuò de shì xuànfēng.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

Tatoeba

蜗牛壳是螺旋形的.

Wōniúké shì luóxuánxíng de.

A snail's shell is spiral in form.

Tatoeba

我想不起那首歌的旋律。

Wǒ xiǎng bù qǐ nà shǒu gē de xuánlǜ.

I can't remember the melody of that song.

Tatoeba

地球大约每三百六十五天就会围绕太阳旋转一周。

Dìqiú dàyuē měi sān bǎi liùshí wǔ tiān jiù huì wéirào tàiyang xuánzhuǎn yīzhōu.

The earth makes one revolution around the sun in about 365 days.

Character Family

方 Radical Family — Characters sharing the square radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced xuán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 旋 (xuán) mean in Chinese?
旋 (xuán) primarily means "to revolve." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1375 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 旋 have?
旋 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 旋?
The radical associated with 旋 is 方 (square). This radical appears in many characters related to square.
What are the components of 旋?
旋 is composed of: 方 (structural), 疋 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 旋?
Common words with 旋 include: 旋转 (xuán zhuǎn, "to rotate"); 旋律 (xuán lǜ, "melody"); 盘旋 (pán xuán, "to spiral"); 螺旋 (luó xuán, "spiral"); 旋风 (xuàn fēng, "whirlwind"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 旋 (xuán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xuán: 选 (to choose), 宣 (to declare (publicly)), 悬 (to hang or suspend), 玄 (black), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 旋 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 旋 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 旋 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.