HSK 5 · Body

呼吸 hūxī “to breathe” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 呼吸 means

  1. to breathe

How to say 呼吸

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale呼hū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale吸xī1st tone, high and level

呼吸 in a sentence

  1. 用你的鼻子呼吸。

    Yòng nǐ de bízi hūxī.

    Breathe through your nose.

    Sentence #4845078 from Tatoeba

  2. 呼吸变得困难了。

    Hūxī biàn de kùnnan le.

    It’s become hard to breathe.

    Sentence #7781724 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 呼吸点新鲜空气会让我好些。

    Hūxī diǎn xīnxiān kōngqì huì ràng wǒ hǎo xiē.

    Some fresh air will do me good.

    Sentence #11698181 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 呼吸 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 呼 (hū) with each of its parts in a different colour
呼hūto call
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 乎interrogative or exclamatory final particle · hūSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 乎 (hū) hints at the sound. Compare it with hū.

The character 吸 (xī) with each of its parts in a different colour
吸xīto breathe
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 及to extend · jíSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 及 (jí) hints at the sound. Compare it with xī.

How to write 呼吸

呼 8 strokes · 吸 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 呼吸

Words with 呼

打招呼dǎzhāohu · to say hello称呼chēnghu · to call呼唤hūhuàn · to call呼吁hūyù · to appeal呼啸hūxiào · to whistle

Words with 吸

吸引xīyǐn · to attract吸取xīqǔ · to absorb吸收xīshōu · to absorb

More words: People, Body & Health

挂号guàhào · to register (at a hospital)过敏guòmǐn · allergic后背hòubèi · back (of the body)怀孕huáiyùn · to be pregnant肌肉jīròu · muscle肩膀jiānbǎng · shoulder精力jīnglì · energy急诊jízhěn · emergency treatment

FAQs

呼吸 (hūxī) means “to breathe”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it hūxī: hū with a 1st tone, then xī with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 呼吸 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type huxi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 呼吸 from the suggestions. Typing huxi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
呼吸 is an HSK 5 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.