TongTong
Sign in

虚伪 (xū wěi) — hypocritical, false, insincere

Definition

虚伪 describes people or behavior that is insincere or two-faced, hiding real feelings behind false ones. Stronger and more personal than 虚假, which refers to false facts or things.

adjective
hypocriticalfalseinsincere

Examples

  • 虚伪，。
    Tā shuō de nà xiē huà tài xū wěi le, méi rén xiāng xìn.
    What he said was too hypocritical; no one believed it.
  • 虚伪，。
    Tā zǒng shì dài zhe xū wěi de wēi xiào, ràng rén hěn bù shū fu.
    She always has a fake smile, which makes people very uncomfortable.
  • ，虚伪。
    Zài zhí chǎng zhōng, xū wěi de xíng wéi zuì zhōng huì bèi tóng shì kàn chuān.
    In the workplace, hypocritical behavior will eventually be seen through by colleagues.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

虚xūempty
伪wěifeigned

虚 (empty) and 伪 (feigned) combine to describe insincere pretense.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 虛; 虚 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
丘丘qiūhill
Sound part声符shēngfú
虍
虍hū虛xū
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 虛 pairs the upper 虍, which gives the sound, with a lower part shaped like 丘, 'hill'; the simplified 虚 is a later shorthand.

Open 虚 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 偽; 伪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
為
為wéi偽wěi
Same sound today

The modern 伪 comes from the traditional form 偽, where 亻 (man) marks the idea as about a person and 為 gives the sound and means “to make”; together they originally meant “artificial”.

Open 伪 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Personality & Traits

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.