How to Write 喧 (xuān) — Meaning “Noisy”

Picture a mouth (口) shouting through a giant megaphone shaped like the top of 宣. The megaphone amplifies the sound, making everything "noisy". This visual of a mouth plus a loudspeaker helps connect the form to the meaning.

Write the left radical 口 first, small and placed high on the left. Then write the right part 宣: start with the roof 宀 (dot, dot, horizontal), then below write 亘 (horizontal, vertical, horizontal, horizontal, vertical). Keep the right side slightly taller than the left, and avoid making 口 too large.

喧 (noisy) has 口 on the left and 宣 on the right. 哥 (elder brother) is two stacked 可 (kě) and has nothing to do with noise. 㕡 (an ancient word for a ravine) is very rare and uses a different right component (壑). In daily use, you will mostly encounter 喧 and 哥, and their shapes are clearly different.

喧 appears in formal or written Chinese to describe loud noise, like in 喧哗 (making a racket) for public disturbances, or 喧闹 (noisy and lively) for crowded places. 喧嚣 (bustle) is often used for urban noise. Culturally, 喧 can imply a lack of order or harmony, so it is not used for positive excitement.

Common words containing 喧 include: 喧哗 (xuān huá) — To make a racket; 喧闹 (xuān nào) — noisy, clamorous; 喧嚣 (xuān xiāo) — noise, bustle.