沸 (fèi): to boil

沸 (fèi) is a Chinese character meaning “to boil.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 弗 (phonetic). It ranks #2563 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 沸 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to boil

Etymology & Origin

沸

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵弗 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
沸腾verbfèi téng(of a liquid) to boil
沸沸扬扬phrasefèi fèi yáng yángbubbling and gurgling
煮沸verbzhǔ fèito boil
沸水nounfèi shuǐboiling water
沸点nounfèi diǎnboiling point
人声鼎沸phraserén shēng dǐng fèilit. a boiling cauldron of voices (idiom)
热血沸腾rè xuè fèi téng(idiom) to be fired up
以汤沃沸yǐ tāng wò fèito manage a situation badly (idiom)
民怨沸腾mín yuàn fèi téngseething discontent (idiom)
沸石nounfèi shízeolite
民怨鼎沸mín yuàn dǐng fèiseething discontent (idiom)
滚沸gǔn fèi(of a liquid) to boil
鼎沸adjectivedǐng fèia confused noise
13
Total compounds
38
As first character
46
As last character
15
As middle character

沸 appears in 13 compound words: 38 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 15 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 沸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

煮zhǔ
0.614998 co-occurrences
腾téng
0.576991 co-occurrences
怨yuàn
0.456214 co-occurrences
烫tàng
0.45026 co-occurrences
鼎dǐng
0.441224 co-occurrences
扬yáng
0.441282 co-occurrences
闹nào
0.40140 co-occurrences
液yè
0.400242 co-occurrences
娱yú
0.398100 co-occurrences
锅guō
0.39650 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

沸沸扬扬fèifèiyángyángHSK 7+

tumultuous; noisy; hubbub

phrase
民怨沸腾mín yuàn fèi téngHSK 7+

seething discontent (idiom); popular grievances boil over

phrase
人声鼎沸rénshēngdǐngfèiHSK 7+

a cacophony of voices

phrase
以汤沃沸yǐ tāng wò fèiHSK 7+

to manage a situation badly (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

沸水滚烫,小心烫伤。

Fèishuǐ gǔntàng, xiǎoxīn tàng shāng.

Boiling water is scalding, be careful of burns.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

有人问:回家煮沸总行了吧?

yǒu rén wèn : huí jiā zhǔ fèi zǒng háng le ba ?

Someone asked, “Surely it’s okay to just boil it at home, right?”

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

现挤奶里可能同时存在多种致病菌,家庭煮沸往往温度不够、时间不足,杀菌不彻底。

xiàn jǐ nǎi lǐ kě néng tóng shí cún zài duō zhǒng zhì bìng jūn , jiā tíng zhǔ fèi wǎng wǎng wēn dù bù gòu , shí jiān bù zú , shā jūn bù chè de .

Freshly milked milk may contain multiple types of pathogenic bacteria; when boiled at home, the temperature is often too low and the boiling time too short, resulting in incomplete sterilization.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

鱼虾建议沸水焯1~2分钟后捞出,既能去腥,也能保持鲜嫩的口感。

yú xiā jiàn yì fèi shuǐ 焯 1 2 fēn zhōng hòu lāo chū , jì néng qù xīng , yě néng bǎo chí xiān nèn de kǒu gǎn .

It is recommended to blanch fish and shrimp in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes before removing them; this removes any fishy odor while preserving their tender texture.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

每一处看似只是一个片段,但它们共同勾勒出一座曾经人声鼎沸的建筑。

měi yī chǔ kàn sì zhī shì yī gè piàn duàn , dàn tā men gòng tóng gōu lè chū yī zuò céng jīng rén shēng dǐng fèi de jiàn zhù .

Each one may seem like just a fragment, but together they paint a picture of a building that was once bustling with people.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

除湿机水能喝吗?他自爆“煮沸后泡茶” 实测结果曝光

chú shī jī shuǐ néng hē ma ? tā zì bào zhǔ fèi hòu pāo chá shí cè jié guǒ pù guāng

Can you drink water from a dehumidifier? He revealed that he "boils it and uses it to make tea"—here are the test results

Tatoeba

水沸腾后变为蒸汽。

Shuǐ fèiténg hòu biànwéi zhēngqì.

Water steams when it boils.

Tatoeba

藉由煮沸以减少黏浆状物质。

Jièyóu zhǔfèi yǐ jiǎnshǎo nián jiāng zhuàngwù zhì.

Reduce to pulp by boiling.

Tatoeba

听到这个让我感觉热血沸腾。

Tīngdào zhège ràng wǒ gǎnjué rèxuèfèiténg.

It made my blood boil to hear that.

Tatoeba

我们的老师说水到了一百度就会沸腾。

Wǒmen de lǎoshī shuō shuǐ dào le yī Bǎidù jiù huì fèiténg.

Our teacher said that water boils at 100°C.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced fèi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 沸 (fèi) mean in Chinese?
沸 (fèi) primarily means "to boil." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2563 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 沸 and 佛?
沸 (fèi) and 佛 (fó) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 亻 (same 弗 component).
How many strokes does 沸 have?
沸 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 沸?
The radical associated with 沸 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 沸?
沸 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 弗 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵弗 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 沸?
Common words with 沸 include: 沸腾 (fèi téng, "(of a liquid) to boil"); 沸沸扬扬 (fèi fèi yáng yáng, "bubbling and gurgling"); 煮沸 (zhǔ fèi, "to boil"); 沸水 (fèi shuǐ, "boiling water"); 沸点 (fèi diǎn, "boiling point"). There are over 13 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 沸 (fèi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fèi: 费 (to cost), 非 (to not be), 飞 (to fly), 废 (waste, to abandon), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 沸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 沸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 沸 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.