(xuán): black, mysterious

(xuán) is a Chinese character meaning “black.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1701 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. black
  2. mysterious

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xuán jīprofound theory (in Daoism and Buddhism)
xuán hūunreliable
xuán miàomysterious
gù nòng xuán xūdeliberately mystifying
xuán wǔ yán(geology) basalt
xuán xuéWei and Jin philosophical school amalgamating Daoist and Confucian ideals
xuán zhī yòu xuánmystery within a mystery
xuán sūngreat-great-grandson
xuán wǔ mén zhī biànXuanwu gate coup of June 626 in early Tang, in which Li Shimin 李世民 killed his brothers, seized the throne from his fa...
tiān dì xuán huángfirst line of the Thousand Character Classic 千字文[Qian1 zi4 wen2]
jiǔ tiān xuán nǚXuan Nü, a fairy in Chinese mythology
xuán wǔ qūXuanwu (Black tortoise) district of Nanjing City 南京市 in Jiangsu 江蘇|江苏
xuán lǐprofound theory
xuán guānentrance hall
xuán sèblack (without gloss)
38
Total compounds
71
As first character
8
As last character
21
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

sūn
0.4989,876 co-occurrences
0.47924,492 co-occurrences
zōng
0.47319,458 co-occurrences
yán
0.4587,308 co-occurrences
táng
0.4509,252 co-occurrences
miào
0.4192,274 co-occurrences
líng
0.3891,392 co-occurrences
0.3857,806 co-occurrences
bīn
0.375906 co-occurrences
huàn
0.3722,142 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

gùnòngxuánxūHSK 7+

deliberately mystifying; to make something unnecessarily mysterious

phrase
jiǔ tiān xuán nǚHSK 7+

Xuan Nü, a fairy in Chinese mythology

phrase
tiān dì xuán huángHSK 7+

first line of the Thousand Character Classic 千字文[Qian1 zi4 wen2]

phrase
xuánzhīyòuxuánHSK 7+

extremely profound and mysterious

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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.

工商時報Mar 2026

...股周一迎终极考验?唯一开盘市场V型反转藏

. . . 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

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...英伟达成为“全球最大网络公司” 当中有何机?

. . . 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"?

Hk01.comFeb 2026

Disney+天机试炼场|韩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

EttodayFeb 2026

刮刮乐“夹心学”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...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

连杠龟都有机?她买刮刮乐摸透“1规律” 秒中万元大...

lián gàng guī dōu yǒu xuán jī ? tā mǎi guā guā lè mō tòu 1 guī lǜ miǎo zhōng wàn yuán dà . . .

Even the turtle has a mystery? She bought scratch cards to figure out the "1 rule" in seconds...

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the dark radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced xuán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 玄 (xuán) mean in Chinese?
玄 (xuán) primarily means "black." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1701 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 玄 and 白?
玄 (xuán) and 白 (bái) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 玄 (black) vs 白 (white).
How many strokes does 玄 have?
玄 is written with 5 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 玄?
The radical associated with 玄 is 玄 (dark). This radical appears in many characters related to dark.
What are the components of 玄?
玄 is composed of: 亠 (structural), 幺 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱亠幺 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 玄?
Common words with 玄 include: 玄机 (xuán jī, "profound theory (in Daoism and Buddhism)"); 玄乎 (xuán hū, "unreliable"); 玄妙 (xuán miào, "mysterious"); 故弄玄虚 (gù nòng xuán xū, "deliberately mystifying"); 玄武岩 (xuán wǔ yán, "(geology) basalt"). There are over 38 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 玄 (xuán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xuán: 宣 (to declare (publicly)), 喧 (clamor), 悬 (to hang or suspend), 旋 (to revolve), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 玄 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 玄 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.