炊 (chuī): to cook food

炊 (chuī) is a Chinese character meaning “to cook food.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 火 (semantic) and 欠 (phonetic). It ranks #2878 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 炊 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 灯 (dēng, lamp, light), 烟 (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 火 fire8 strokesFrequency #2878火 semantic欠 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to cook food

Etymology & Origin

炊

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火欠 (layout: left-right)

Components:火semantic欠phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
炊事chuī shìcooking
野炊yě chuīto cook a meal over a campfire (usu. for a group of people on an outing)
炊具chuī jùcooking utensils
炊烟chuī yānsmoke from kitchen chimneys
炊事员chuī shì yuáncook
巧妇难为无米之炊qiǎo fù nán wéi wú mǐ zhī chuīThe cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice (idiom)
米已成炊mǐ yǐ chéng chuīlit. the rice has already been cooked (idiom)
炊器chuī qìcooking vessels (archaeology)
食玉炊桂shí yù chuī guìfood is more precious than jade and firewood more expensive than cassia (idiom)
炊爨chuī cuànto light a fire and cook a meal
炊帚chuī zhoupot-scrubbing brush, made from bamboo strips
11
Total compounds
64
As first character
27
As last character
9
As middle character

炊 appears in 11 compound words: 64 as the first character, 27 as the last, and 9 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 炊 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

煮zhǔ
0.498300 co-occurrences
灶zào
0.44890 co-occurrences
烟yān
0.442246 co-occurrences
具jù
0.4151,110 co-occurrences
茶chá
0.415300 co-occurrences
厨chú
0.39248 co-occurrences
御yù
0.390342 co-occurrences
舵duò
0.38136 co-occurrences
事shì
0.3751,830 co-occurrences
锅guō
0.36636 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

米已成炊mǐyǐchéngchuīHSK 7+

the die is cast; what's done is done

phrase
食玉炊桂shí yù chuī guìHSK 7+

food is more precious than jade and firewood more expensive than cassia (idiom); the cost of living is very high

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

蜡烛的炊苗在微风中轻轻摇曳。

là zhú de chuī miáo zài wēi fēng zhōng qīng qīng yáo 曳 .

The candle's wick swayed gently in the breeze.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

燃气发电恐“断炊” 龚明鑫:可跟非中东产国或日韩调货

rán qì fā diàn kǒng duàn chuī 龚 míng 鑫 : kě gēn fēi zhōng dōng chǎn guó huò rì hán diào huò

Gas power generation may "cut off cooking" Gong Mingxin: You can transfer goods with non-Middle Eastern producing countries or Japan and South Korea

Character Family

火 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fire radical

煲bāo焙bèi灿càn炒chǎo灯dēng炖dùn烦fán耿gěng焊hàn烘hōng

Related Characters

火huǒ灯dēng烟yān烦fán炼liàn烧shāo燃rán灰huī灾zāi烂làn

Homophones — Characters pronounced chuī

吹chuī垂chuí捶chuí锤chuí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 炊 (chuī) mean in Chinese?
炊 (chuī) primarily means "to cook food." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2878 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 炊 and 软?
炊 (chuī) and 软 (ruǎn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 车 (same 欠 component).
How many strokes does 炊 have?
炊 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 炊?
The radical associated with 炊 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 炊?
炊 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 欠 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火欠 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 炊?
Common words with 炊 include: 炊事 (chuī shì, "cooking"); 野炊 (yě chuī, "to cook a meal over a campfire (usu. for a group of people on an outing)"); 炊具 (chuī jù, "cooking utensils"); 炊烟 (chuī yān, "smoke from kitchen chimneys"); 炊事员 (chuī shì yuán, "cook"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 炊 (chuī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chuī: 吹 (to blow), 垂 (to hang (down)), 捶 (to beat (with a stick or one's fist)), 锤 (hammer). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 炊 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 炊 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.