悬

懸

xuán

县 + 心

HSK 3.0Level 7

Definitions

xuán (verb) to hang; to suspend

xuán (verb) to worry; to be anxious

xuán (adjective) unresolved; uncertain

Etymology ideographic

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

About

The traditional character 懸 is a phono-semantic compound, combining the heart/mind radical 心 (indicating emotion or thought) with 縣 (xiàn), which originally meant "to hang" and depicts a head hanging upside down from a tree. Adding 心 gave it the psychological dimension of anxiety or suspense, literally "a hanging heart". It came to mean both physically hanging objects and abstractly an unresolved, anxious state. The simplified form 悬 replaces the complex top with 县, a simpler phonetic component, while retaining 心 below, preserving the same meanings of suspension and anxiety.

Etymology Hide

Clerical Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

问题还没有解决。

Wèntí hái méiyǒu jiějué.

The problem has not been resolved yet.

那盏灯悬挂在天花板上。

Nà zhǎn dēng xuánguà zài tiānhuābǎn shàng.

That lamp is hanging from the ceiling.

这部电影充满了悬念。

Zhè bù diànyǐng chōngmǎn le xuánniàn.

This movie is full of suspense.

悬崖边上长着一棵松树。

Xuányá biān shàng zhǎng zhe yī kē sōngshù.

A pine tree grows on the edge of the cliff.

他的命运仍然悬而未决。

Tā de mìngyùn réngrán xuán ér wèi jué.

His fate still hangs in the balance.

这个案件至今仍是一桩悬案。

Zhège ànjiàn zhìjīn réng shì yī zhuāng xuán'àn.

This case remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

他的观点缺乏证据，显得很悬乎。

Tā de guāndiǎn quēfá zhèngjù, xiǎnde hěn xuánhu.

His viewpoint lacks evidence and seems quite dubious.

两国之间的谈判目前处于悬置状态。

Liǎng guó zhī jiān de tánpàn mùqián chǔyú xuánzhì zhuàngtài.

The negotiations between the two countries are currently in suspension.

Related Characters

Component: 县

悬