玄乎 (xuán hū) — (colloquial, stative verb) far-fetched; unreliable; hard to believe

Definition

Colloquial adjective meaning a story or explanation sounds 'fishy' — too far-fetched to trust, not literally mysterious. Closer to 'hard to believe' than to genuinely mystical or profound.

adjective
(colloquial, stative verb) far-fetchedunreliablehard to believe

Examples

  • 玄乎，。
    Tā shuō de nà ge gù shi tài xuán hū le, méi rén xiāng xìn.
    The story he told was too far-fetched; no one believed it.
  • 玄乎，？
    Zhè jiàn shì tīng qǐ lái hěn xuán hū, nǐ néng bù néng shuō dé jù tǐ yì diǎn?
    This matter sounds very unreliable; can you be more specific?
  • ，玄乎。
    Bié tīng tā de, nà xiē dōu shì xuán hū de shuō fǎ.
    Don't listen to him; those are all far-fetched statements.

Origin

Derived word
构词法gòucífǎ
后缀hòuzhuìSuffix

A fixed syllable at the end that turns the word into a noun, a person, a place or the like.

玄xuánfar-fetched
乎hū

玄 “far-fetched” with 乎 expresses a colloquial sense of being unreliable.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The shape of 玄 represents a rope made of twisted strands, with a mark above it.

Open 玄 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 丂丂kǎobranch

The old 乎 paired an element for wind or air with 丂, a branch used as a sound part, and was the original form of the word for 'to call; to cry'.

Open 乎 →

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