巡 (xún): to patrol, to make one's rounds, classifier for rounds of drinks

巡 (xún) is a Chinese character meaning “to patrol.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 辶 (structural) and 巛 (structural). It ranks #1534 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 巡 to walk 辶 by the river 巛; 巛 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 辶 (walk) appears in many related characters such as 边 (biān, side), 过 (guò, to pass, past), 还 (hái, still, return).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to patrol
  2. to make one's rounds
  3. classifier for rounds of drinks

Etymology & Origin

巡

ideographicTo walk 辶 by the river 巛; 巛 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿺辶巛 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
巡逻verbxún luóto patrol
巡演verbxún yǎn(theater etc) to tour
巡回verbxún huíto go around
巡警nounxún jǐngpolice patrol
巡回演出xún huí yǎn chū(theater etc) to tour
巡逻队xún luó duì(army, police) patrol
巡游verbxún yóuto cruise
巡视verbxún shìto inspect (a site)
巡逻车nounxún luó chēpatrol car
巡查verbxún cháto patrol
巡航verbxún háng(military) to patrol (airspace or waters)
巡洋舰nounxún yáng jiàncruiser (warship)
巡抚verbxún fǔinspector-general of province in Ming and Qing times
巡航导弹nounxún háng dǎo dàncruise missile
巡礼verbxún lǐto make a pilgrimage (to visit a holy site)
31
Total compounds
77
As first character
13
As last character
10
As middle character

巡 appears in 31 compound words: 77 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 10 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 巡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

逻luó
0.63713,515 co-occurrences
抚fǔ
0.61510,858 co-occurrences
蒙méng
0.57928,592 co-occurrences
洋yáng
0.56024,072 co-occurrences
舰jiàn
0.54916,014 co-occurrences
履lǚ
0.54016 co-occurrences
唱chàng
0.51726,944 co-occurrences
天tiān
0.51652,638 co-occurrences
演yǎn
0.51356,910 co-occurrences
匹pǐ
0.50814 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习巡字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí xún zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "巡" requires repeated practice to achieve neatness.

中国军网Feb 2026

新春走军营 | 风雪66载 红臂绳映照巡边路

xīn chūn zǒu jūn yíng fēng xuě 6 6 zài hóng bì shéng yìng zhào xún biān lù

New Year's walk to the barracks | 66 years of wind and snow, the red arm rope reflects the patrol road

中国军网Feb 2026

军队政协委员履职尽责巡礼丨全国政协委员付小兵:努力推进创面救治...

jūn duì zhèng xié wěi yuán lǚ zhí jǐn zé xún lǐ 丨 quán guó zhèng xié wěi yuán fù xiǎo bīng : nǔ lì tuī jìn chuàng miàn jiù zhì . . .

Military CPPCC members perform their duties and perform their duties丨National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Fu Xiaobing: Strive to promote wound treatment...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

麦当劳新春花车巡游|GenZ新力军初入职场 感受“世一”...

mài dāng láo xīn chūn huā chē xún yóu G e n Z xīn lì jūn chū rù zhí chǎng gǎn shòu shì yī . . .

McDonald's Chinese New Year Parade | GenZ's new force first entered the workplace and felt the "world's first"...

美通社Feb 2026

2026年PPA亚洲职业匹克球巡回赛赛程揭晓,香港大满贯赛将成为压轴赛事

2 0 2 6 nián P P A yà zhōu zhí yè pǐ kè qiú xún huí sài sài chéng jiē xiǎo , xiāng gǎng dà mǎn guàn sài jiāng chéng wéi yā zhóu sài shì

The 2026 PPA Asian Professional Pickleball Tour schedule has been announced, and the Hong Kong Grand Slam will be the finale

Tatoeba

一大群人聚在一起看巡游。

Yī dà qún rén jùzàiyīqǐ kàn xúnyóu.

A crowd of people gathered to see the parade.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced xún

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 巡 (xún) mean in Chinese?
巡 (xún) primarily means "to patrol." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1534 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 巡 have?
巡 is written with 6 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 巡?
The radical associated with 巡 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 巡?
巡 is composed of: 辶 (structural), 巛 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶巛 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 巡?
Common words with 巡 include: 巡逻 (xún luó, "to patrol"); 巡演 (xún yǎn, "(theater etc) to tour"); 巡回 (xún huí, "to go around"); 巡警 (xún jǐng, "police patrol"); 巡回演出 (xún huí yǎn chū, "(theater etc) to tour"). There are over 31 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 巡 (xún)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xún: 寻 (to search), 训 (to teach), 讯 ((bound form) to ask), 迅 (rapid), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 巡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 巡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 巡 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.