询 (xún): to ask about, to inquire about

询 (xún) is a Chinese character meaning “to ask about.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 讠 (semantic) and 旬 (phonetic). It ranks #1606 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 询 speech. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 认 (rèn, to recognize, to admit), 记 (jì, to remember, to record), 识 (shí, to know, knowledge).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to ask about
  2. to inquire about

Etymology & Origin

询

pictophoneticspeech

Decomposition: ⿰讠旬 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 询

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
询问verbxún wènto inquire5
咨询verbzī xúnvariant of 諮詢|咨询5
查询verbchá xúnto check6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
质询verbzhì xúnto question
问询wèn xúnsee 詢問|询问
征询verbzhēng xúnto consult
国际电报电话咨询委员会guó jì diàn bào diàn huà zī xún wěi yuán huìInternational Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT)
线上查询xiàn shàng chá xúnonline search
询根问底xún gēn wèn dǐlit. to examine roots and inquire at the base (idiom)
询问台nounxún wèn táiinformation desk
询查xún cháto make inquiries
询价nounxún jiàquotation request
欧阳询ōu yáng xúnOuyang Xun (557-641), one of Four Great Calligraphers of early Tang 唐初四大家
追询zhuī xúnto interrogate
探询verbtàn xúnto inquire into
询盘xún páninquiry
轮询verblún xún(computing) to poll
咨询员zī xún yuánadvisor
20
Total compounds
30
As first character
60
As last character
10
As middle character

询 appears in 20 compound words: 30 as the first character, 60 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 询 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

谘zī
0.79824 co-occurrences
咨zī
0.79612,852 co-occurrences
问wèn
0.5308,535 co-occurrences
查chá
0.4716,159 co-occurrences
质zhì
0.4111,106 co-occurrences
务wù
0.3741,316 co-occurrences
员yuán
0.3682,150 co-occurrences
委wěi
0.3671,898 co-occurrences
征zhēng
0.366612 co-occurrences
会huì
0.3652,630 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

线上查询xiàn shàng chá xúnHSK 5+

online search

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他询论自由,但也要注意言辞得当。

tā xún lún zì yóu , dàn yě yāo zhù yì yán cí dé dāng .

He advocates for freedom of inquiry, but must also be mindful of his choice of words.

Investing 香港Feb 2026

五角大厦向波音和洛克希德马丁询问对Anthropic的依赖程度——Ax...

wǔ jiǎo dà xià xiàng bō yīn hé 洛 kè xī dé mǎ dīng xún wèn duì A n t h r o p i c de yī lài chéng dù — — A x . . .

The Pentagon asked Boeing and Lockheed Martin how much it depends on Anthropic - Ax...

99 健康网Feb 2026

...面窄到一根手指都疼是怎么回事?需要心理咨询辅助吗

. . . miàn zhǎi dào yī gēn shǒu zhǐ dōu téng shì zěn má huí shì ? xū yāo xīn lǐ zī xún fǔ zhù ma

... What's going on with the face so narrow that a finger hurts? Do you need psychological counseling assistance?

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...K)年内完成航天企业上市相关检讨并提出谘询

. . . K ) nián nèi wán chéng háng tiān qǐ yè shàng shì xiāng guān jiǎn tǎo bìng tí chū 谘 xún

... K) completed the review and consultation related to the listing of aerospace enterprises during the year

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

考生注意!今天上午9时公布学测成绩 查询方式一次看

kǎo shēng zhù yì ! jīn tiān shàng wǔ 9 shí gōng bù xué cè chéng jì chá xún fāng shì yī cì kàn

Attention candidates! At 9 a.m. today, the results of the academic test will be announced

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

...T接管后修订路线 槟轻快铁依法展开修订谘询

. . . T jiē guǎn hòu xiū dìng lù xiàn 槟 qīng kuài tiě yī fǎ zhǎn kāi xiū dìng 谘 xún

... T revised the route after takeover Penang LRT launched a consultation on revision in accordance with the law

Tatoeba

好的,您想咨询什么事情?

Hǎo de, nín xiǎng zīxún shénmeshì qíng?

OK, what would you like advice on?

Tatoeba

游客谘询处在哪里?

Yóukè zīxún chǔzài nǎlǐ?

Where is the tourist information office?

Tatoeba

你应该谘询你的医生。

Nǐ yīnggāi zīxún nǐ de yīshēng.

You should consult your doctor.

Tatoeba

她有勇气去查询考试的结果。

Tā yǒu yǒngqì qù cháxún kǎoshì de jiéguǒ.

She had the courage to go and inquire about the results of the exam.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 讠 (speech) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced xún

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 询 (xún) mean in Chinese?
询 (xún) primarily means "to ask about." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1606 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 询 and 答?
询 (xún) and 答 (dá) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 询 (ask) vs 答 (answer).
How many strokes does 询 have?
询 is written with 8 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 询?
The radical associated with 询 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are the components of 询?
询 is composed of: 讠 (semantic), 旬 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰讠旬 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 询?
Common words with 询 include: 询问 (xún wèn, "to inquire"); 咨询 (zī xún, "variant of 諮詢|咨询"); 查询 (chá xún, "to check"); 质询 (zhì xún, "to question"); 问询 (wèn xún, "see 詢問|询问"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 询 (xún)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xún: 荀 ((archaic) name of a plant mentioned in ancient texts), 寻 (to search), 训 (to teach), 讯 ((bound form) to ask), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 询 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 询 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 询 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.