宠 (chǒng): to love, to pamper, to spoil

宠 (chǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “to love.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 宀 (semantic) and 龙 (phonetic). It ranks #2344 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 宠 roof. Its radical form 宀 (roof) appears in many related characters such as 客 (kè, guest, customer), 家 (jiā, home, family), 它 (tā, it).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to love
  2. to pamper
  3. to spoil

Etymology & Origin

宠

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀龙 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing 宠 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 宠

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
宠物nounchǒng wùhouse pet5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
受宠若惊phraseshòu chǒng ruò jīngoverwhelmed by favor from superior (humble expr.)
宠坏verbchǒng huàito spoil (a child etc)
宠爱verbchǒng àito dote on sb
宠儿nounchǒng érpet
哗众取宠phrasehuá zhòng qǔ chǒngsensationalism
受宠verbshòu chǒngto receive favor (from superior)
失宠verbshī chǒngto lose favor
得宠verbdé chǒngto be a favorite
宠信verbchǒng xìnto dote on and trust
娇宠verbjiāo chǒngto indulge
宠物门chǒng wù ménpet door
丁宠家庭noundīng chǒng jiā tíngdouble income family who have pets rather than children (see also 丁克)
新宠nounxīn chǒngcurrent favorite
争宠verbzhēng chǒngto strive for favor
宠擅专房chǒng shàn zhuān fángan especially favored concubine (idiom)
26
Total compounds
54
As first character
38
As last character
8
As middle character

宠 appears in 26 compound words: 54 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 8 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 宠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

哗huā
0.541128 co-occurrences
爱ài
0.5262,032 co-occurrences
饲sì
0.475155 co-occurrences
骄jiāo
0.472104 co-occurrences
物wù
0.4363,304 co-occurrences
狗gǒu
0.420280 co-occurrences
臣chén
0.419690 co-occurrences
幸xìng
0.416526 co-occurrences
猫māo
0.404140 co-occurrences
养yǎng
0.390276 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

哗众取宠huázhòngqǔchǒngHSK 7+

to try to please the crowd with claptrap

phrase
受宠若惊shòuchǒngruòjīngHSK 7+

flattered; overwhelmed by favour from a superior

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

宠字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

chǒng zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "宠" has different usages in different contexts.

東森新聞Feb 2026

鲑鱼卵近年翻涨飙高! 飞鱼卵逆势成新宠

鲑 yú luǎn jìn nián fān zhǎng biāo gāo ! fēi yú luǎn nì shì chéng xīn chǒng

Salmon roe has soared in recent years! Flying fish eggs bucked the trend and became a new favorite

公視新聞網 PnnFeb 2026

东京建商打造宠物宅 租客数5年翻倍成长

dōng jīng jiàn shāng dǎ zào chǒng wù zhái zū kè shǔ 5 nián fān bèi chéng cháng

Tokyo builder builds pet houses The number of tenants has doubled in 5 years

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

女子花8800元寻猫发现没丢 寻宠队提前收尾款不退合理吗

nǚ zǐ huā 8 8 0 0 yuán xún māo fā xiàn méi diū xún chǒng duì tí qián shōu wěi kuǎn bù tuì gě lǐ ma

The woman spent 8,800 yuan to find a cat and found that it was not lost, is it reasonable for the pet search team to close the final payment in advance and not refund it?

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

服务质量参差不齐,上门喂养宠物服务该如何规范

fú wù zhì liàng cān chā bù qí , shàng mén wéi yǎng chǒng wù fú wù gāi rú hé guī fàn

The quality of service is uneven, and how to standardize door-to-door pet feeding services

StheadlineFeb 2026

科大生亲历爱犬离世 研宠物健康App 目标打造“宠物版医健通”

kē dà shēng qīn lì ài quǎn lí shì yán chǒng wù jiàn kāng A p p mù biāo dǎ zào chǒng wù bǎn yī jiàn tōng

HKUST students experience the death of their beloved dog and develop a pet health app with the goal of creating a "pet version of eHealth"

Tatoeba

“什么宠物一直在地板上?”“地毯。”

"shénme chǒngwù yīzhí zàidì bǎn shàng?""dìtǎn."

"What kind of pet is always found on the floor?" "A carpet."

Tatoeba

她养各种不同的宠物。

Tā yǎng gèzhǒng bùtóng de chǒngwù.

She kept various kinds of pets.

Tatoeba

美国政府一直视英国为美国的宠物。

Měiguó zhèngfǔ yīzhí shì Yīngguó wèi Měiguó de chǒngwù.

The American government has always regarded England as America's house pet.

Tatoeba

她养一只鹦鹉作为宠物。

Tā yǎng yī zhī yīngwǔ zuòwéi chǒngwù.

She keeps a parrot as a pet.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 宀 (roof) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced chǒng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 宠 (chǒng) mean in Chinese?
宠 (chǒng) primarily means "to love." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2344 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 宠 and 恨?
宠 (chǒng) and 恨 (hèn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 宠 (love) vs 恨 (hate).
How many strokes does 宠 have?
宠 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 宠?
The radical associated with 宠 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 宠?
宠 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 龙 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀龙 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 宠?
Common words with 宠 include: 宠物 (chǒng wù, "house pet"); 受宠若惊 (shòu chǒng ruò jīng, "overwhelmed by favor from superior (humble expr.)"); 宠坏 (chǒng huài, "to spoil (a child etc)"); 宠爱 (chǒng ài, "to dote on sb"); 宠儿 (chǒng ér, "pet"). There are over 26 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 宠 (chǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chǒng: 重 (to repeat), 冲 ((of water) to dash against), 充 (sufficient), 虫 (insect). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 宠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 宠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 宠 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.