悬 (xuán): to hang; to suspend

Meanings

1 to hang; to suspend
2 to worry; to be anxious
3 unresolved; outstanding

Characters

悬

xuán

to hang; to suspend

Examples

墙上悬着一幅画。

Qiángshàng xuán zhe yī fú huà.

A painting hangs on the wall.

这件事一直悬而未决。

Zhè jiàn shì yīzhí xuán'érwèijué.

This matter has remained unresolved.

我心里一直悬着。

Wǒ xīnlǐ yīzhí xuán zhe.

I've been worried about it all along.

悬崖边上非常危险。

Xuányá biānshàng fēicháng wēixiǎn.

The edge of the cliff is very dangerous.

Tips

usage

Common compounds: 悬崖 (cliff), 悬念 (suspense), 悬挂 (to hang/suspend), 悬而未决 (unresolved). The colloquial 心里悬着 means 'to feel uneasy.'

Components

radical

心 xīn

heart; mind

Bottom 心 (heart) — the indexing radical, in its full sitting-on-the-bottom form. Adds the inner sense: a hanging heart = anxiety, suspense, hanging in worry. Hence 悬念 (suspense), 悬挂 (hang up), 悬崖 (cliff — where the heart hangs over the edge).

phonetic

县 xiàn

county; to suspend (original)

Top 县 supplies the sound (xiàn → xuán, an alternation in the same phonetic family) and the original meaning: 县 itself once meant 'to hang up' — a severed head suspended from a tree was the literal etymon. When 县 was repurposed for 'county,' a heart was added below to keep the suspending sense alive. The result is 悬.