HSK 6 · Emotions

空虚 kōngxū “empty” in Chinese

Traditional 空虛

What 空虚 means

  1. empty
  2. hollow
  3. emptiness
  4. meaningless

How to say 空虚

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale空kōng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale虚xū1st tone, high and level

空虚 in a sentence

  1. 没有他我的生活是空虚的。

    Méiyǒu tā wǒ de shēnghuó shì kōngxū de.

    My life is empty without him.

    Sentence #503208 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 空虚 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 空 (kōng) with each of its parts in a different colour
空kōngempty
  • 穴cave · xuéMeaning part
  • 工work · gōngSound part

穴 hints at the meaning (cave); 工 (gōng) hints at the sound. Compare it with kōng.

The character 虚 (xū) with each of its parts in a different colour
虚xūemptiness
  • 虍tiger · hū
  • 业business · yè

How to write 空虚

空 8 strokes · 虚 11 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

空虚 (kōngxū) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 空虚 (kōngxū). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 空虚

Words with 空

空调kōngtiáo · air conditioning空kōng · empty填空tiánkòng · to fill in the blanks (on a form or test)空气kōngqì · air空闲kòngxián · free time天空tiānkōng · sky空间kōngjiān · space空想kōngxiǎng · fantasy空洞kōngdòng · empty太空tàikōng · outer space

Words with 虚

谦虚qiānxū · modest虚心xūxīn · open-minded虚假xūjiǎ · false虚伪xūwěi · hypocritical虚荣xūróng · vanity

More words: Emotions & Attitudes

可恶kěwù · hateful克制kèzhì · to restrain恐怖kǒngbù · terror恐惧kǒngjù · fear快活kuàihuo · happy哭泣kūqì · to weep苦涩kǔsè · bitter狼狈lángbèi · in an awkward situation

FAQs

空虚 (kōngxū) means “empty” or “hollow”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it kōngxū: kōng with a 1st tone, then xū with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 空虚 is written 空虛. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kongxu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 空虚 from the suggestions. Typing kongxu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
空虚 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.