HSK 2 · Common Verbs

休息 xiūxi “to rest” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 休息 means

  1. to rest
  2. to take a break

How to say 休息

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale休xiū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own息xineutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

休息 in a sentence

  1. 是时候休息一下了。

    Shì shíhou xiūxi yíxià le.

    It’s time for a break.

    Sentence #10182741 from Tatoeba

  2. 我能休息一会儿吗？

    Wǒ néng xiūxi yíhuìr ma?

    Can I rest a bit?

    Sentence #334654 from Tatoeba

  3. 周日我休息。

    Zhōurì wǒ xiūxi.

    I’m off on Sundays.

    Sentence #4764667 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 休息 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 休 (xiū) with each of its parts in a different colour
休xiūto rest
  • 亻person form of 人 · rén
  • 木tree · mù

Memory aidA person 亻 resting against a tree 木: to rest.

The character 息 (xī) with each of its parts in a different colour
息xībreathlight in 休息
  • 自self · zì
  • 心heart · xīn

How to write 休息

休 6 strokes · 息 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 休息

Words with 休

休假xiūjià · to take leave休闲xiūxián · leisure退休tuìxiū · to retire (from the workforce)

Words with 息

消息xiāoxi · news信息xìnxī · information利息lìxī · interest (on a loan)作息zuòxī · work and rest出息chūxi · promise川流不息chuānliúbùxī · flowing in an endless stream (of people or traffic)

More words: Common Verbs

起床qǐchuáng · to get up上班shàngbān · to go to work说话shuōhuà · to speak踢足球tīzúqiú · to play football (football)找zhǎo · to look for帮助bāngzhù · to help介绍jièshào · to introduce等děng · to wait

FAQs

休息 (xiūxi) means “to rest” or “to take a break”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it xiūxi: xiū with a 1st tone, then xi with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 休息 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiuxi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 休息 from the suggestions. Typing xiuxi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
休息 is an HSK 2 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.