(chǔn): stupid, sluggish, clumsy

(chǔn) is a Chinese character meaning “stupid.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic). It ranks #2145 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, worm. Its radical form (insect) appears in many related characters such as (dàn, egg), (suī, although), (chóng, insect).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. stupid
  2. sluggish
  3. clumsy

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticworm

Decomposition: ⿱春⿰虫虫 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yú chǔnsilly
chǔn huòblockhead
chǔn shìfolly
chǔn lǘsilly ass
chǔn rénfool
chǔn cáiidiot
chǔn chǔn yù dòngto begin to stir (idiom)
chǔn bènstupid
kě chǔn(dialect) unbearable
chǔn dòngto wriggle
chǔn huàfoolish talk
chǔn cáivariant of 蠢材[chun3 cai2]
fàn chǔnto do sth stupid
chǔn hànfool
chǔn dànfool
16
Total compounds
81
As first character
19
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 81 as the first character, 19 as the last, and 0 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.81913,384 co-occurrences
0.5493,027 co-occurrences
péng
0.4411,182 co-occurrences
bèn
0.431204 co-occurrences
lán
0.38748 co-occurrences
dàn
0.382486 co-occurrences
jiū
0.38130 co-occurrences
méng
0.368150 co-occurrences
miù
0.36030 co-occurrences
zhuō
0.35542 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

chǔnchǔnyùdòngHSK 7+

ready to start wriggling; ready to make trouble; be restless and about to make trouble

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí chǔn zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "蠢" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

中国军网Feb 2026

揭批日本军国主义的历史源流与现实危害:欲动 借机复燃

jiē pī rì běn jūn guó zhǔ yì de lì shǐ yuán liú yǔ xiàn shí wēi hài : chǔn chǔn yù dòng jiè jī fù rán

Expose the historical origin and practical harm of Japanese militarism: ready to take the opportunity to rekindle

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

小摩担忧金融危机重演 批评同业“做事”

xiǎo mó dān yōu jīn róng wēi jī chóng yǎn pī píng tóng yè zuò chǔn shì

Morgan Stanley is worried about the recurrence of the financial crisis and criticizes peers for "doing stupid things"

Investing 香港Feb 2026

“有人在做事”!摩根大通CEO戴蒙罕见预警:目前像...

yǒu rén zài zuò chǔn shì ! mó gēn dà tōng C E O dài méng hǎn jiàn yù jǐng : mù qián xiàng . . .

"Someone is doing stupid things"! JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon rare warning: Currently like...

RfiFeb 2026

美最高法院推翻对等关税 川普批荒谬愚

měi zuì gāo fǎ yuàn tuī fān duì děng guān shuì chuān pǔ pī huāng miù yú chǔn

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the reciprocal tariffs, and Trump criticized the absurdity and stupidity

百度新闻Feb 2026

...维多利亚的秘密”前老板:我当初太天真、愚、轻信..

. . . wéi duō lì yà de mì mì qián lǎo bǎn : wǒ dāng chū tài tiān zhēn , yú chǔn , qīng xìn . .

... Victoria's Secret "Former boss: I was too naïve, stupid, gullible...

Tatoeba

汤姆真是愚,是吧?

Tāngmǔ zhēnshi yúchǔn, shì ba?

Tom is so stupid, right?

Tatoeba

你应该为你的愚感到羞耻。

Nǐ yīnggāi wèi nǐ de yúchǔn gǎndào xiūchǐ.

You should be ashamed of your folly.

Tatoeba

是智慧的缺乏。

Yúchǔn shì zhìhuì de quēfá.

Stupidity is a lack of intelligence.

Tatoeba

我竟然得被这么简单的谎话骗倒了!

Wǒ jìngrán chǔn de bèi zhème jiǎndān de huǎnghuà piàn dǎo le!

How foolish I was not to discover that simple lie!

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced chǔn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蠢 (chǔn) mean in Chinese?
蠢 (chǔn) primarily means "stupid." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2145 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 蠢 have?
蠢 is written with 21 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 蠢?
The radical associated with 蠢 is 虫 (insect). This radical appears in many characters related to insect.
What are the components of 蠢?
蠢 is composed of: 春 (phonetic), undefined (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱春⿰虫虫 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蠢?
Common words with 蠢 include: 愚蠢 (yú chǔn, "silly"); 蠢货 (chǔn huò, "blockhead"); 蠢事 (chǔn shì, "folly"); 蠢驴 (chǔn lǘ, "silly ass"); 蠢人 (chǔn rén, "fool"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蠢 (chǔn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chǔn: 春 (spring), 纯 (pure), 唇 (lip), 醇 (alcohol). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蠢 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蠢 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.