虚
Tap the pinyin to hear it
emptiness; void; abstract theory or guiding principles; empty or unoccupied; diffident or timid; false; humble or modest; (of health) weak; virtual; in vain
- HSK 3.0
- Level 5
- Old HSK
- Level 5
- Strokes
- 11
- Radical
- 虍 +5
- Structure
- Upper-left enclosure 左上包
- Traditional
- 虛
- Common rank
- #684
- Unicode
- U+865A
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How to remember it
false · Heisig RSH #1461
虎 tiger + 业 profession
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 虚
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 虚无主义 | nihilism | |
| 虚心好学 | modest and studious (idiom) | |
| 名不虚传 | (idiom) to live up to one's famous name; its reputation is well deserved | |
| 所言不虚 | see 所言非虛|所言非虚[suo3 yan2 fei1 xu1] | |
| 虚电路 | virtual circuit; VC | |
| 子虚乌有 | (idiom) to have no basis in fact; to be the product of sb's imagination | |
| 虚头巴脑 | (coll.) all show and no substance | |
| 眼见为实，耳听为虚 | see 耳聽為虛，眼見為實|耳听为虚，眼见为实[er3 ting1 wei2 xu1 , yan3 jian4 wei2 shi2] | |
| 耳听为虚，眼见为实 | (idiom) what one hears may be unreliable, but what one sees is true; seeing is believing | |
| 交换虚电路 | Switched Virtual Circuit; SVC | |
| 虚头 | to play tricks; to deceive | |
| 心虚 | lacking in confidence; diffident; to have a guilty conscience | |
| 虚心 | open-minded; humble | |
| 虚无 | nothingness | |
| 虚情假意 | false friendship; hypocritical show of affection | |
| 以虚带实 | (idiom) to use the abstract to guide the concrete | |
| 虚应了事 | see 虛應故事|虚应故事[xu1 ying4 gu4 shi4] | |
| 所言非虚 | (after a pronoun or name) what (you, they etc) say is true | |
| 气虚 | deficiency of 氣|气[qi4] (TCM) | |
| 发虚 | to feel weak; to be diffident |
Sound family
These characters use 虚 as their sound component — compare how they read.