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玄乎

xuánhu
adjective #33,523

Meanings

  1. 1 fishy; dubious; hard to believe
  2. 2 mysterious and unreliable
  3. 3 shaky; risky (of a plan or claim)

Examples

他说的太玄乎了，我不信。
Tā shuō de tài xuánhu le, wǒ bù xìn.
What he said is way too far-fetched — I don't buy it.
这事儿听着挺玄乎的。
Zhè shìr tīng zhe tǐng xuánhu de.
This whole thing sounds pretty sketchy.

Tips

register
Colloquial, very common in spoken Beijing/northern Mandarin. The 乎 is unstressed (pronounced light tone 'hu') — it's a flavour particle, not a meaningful syllable. 玄 alone means 'mysterious/profound', so 玄乎 keeps that 'mystery' nuance but tilts it toward 'too mysterious to trust'.
mistakes
Don't confuse with 玄妙 (xuánmiào, 'profound and subtle' — positive). 玄乎 is skeptical: it implies the speaker thinks the claim is unreliable or made up.

Stroke Order

玄 xuán
乎 hū