(fèi): waste, to abandon

(fèi) is a Chinese character meaning “waste, to abandon.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 广 (structural) and (phonetic). It ranks #1368 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, is a compound character. Its radical form 广 (shelter) appears in many related characters such as (chuáng, bed), (diàn, shop), 广 (guǎng, wide, broad).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. waste, to abandon

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticThis character is a compound form.

Decomposition: ⿸广发 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
fèi huànonsense
fèi wùrubbish
fèi qìto discard
fèi xūruins
fèi chúto abolish
cán fèideformity
wō nang fèi(coll.) spineless coward
bàn tú ér fèito give up halfway (idiom)
fèi pǐnproduction rejects
tuí fèidecadent
fèi rénhandicapped person
huāng fèito abandon (cultivated fields)
fèi liàowaste products
zuò fèito become invalid
bào fèito scrap
68
Total compounds
54
As first character
22
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 68 compound words: 54 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 24 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.

0.66530,463 co-occurrences
0.66012,569 co-occurrences
chú
0.59773,327 co-occurrences
tuí
0.5651,278 co-occurrences
bào
0.48219,338 co-occurrences
chāi
0.4788,118 co-occurrences
huāng
0.4705,280 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.47018,672 co-occurrences
chí
0.464756 co-occurrences
0.4474,587 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

bǎifèidàijǔHSK 7+

synonym of 百廢待興 /百废待兴 (bǎifèidàixīng, “many abandoned or neglected tasks or projects are waiting to be undertaken”)

phrase
bǎifèidàixīngHSK 7+

many abandoned or neglected tasks or projects are waiting to be undertaken

phrase
bǎifèijùxīngHSK 7+

all neglected tasks are being undertaken; all that was left undone is now being undertaken

phrase
bàntú'érfèiHSK 7+

to give up halfway through a task; to not finish what one has started

phrase
fèi qǐn wàng cānHSK 7+

see 廢寢忘食|废寝忘食[fei4 qin3 wang4 shi2]

phrase
fèiqǐnwàngshíHSK 7+

to be completely wrapped up in one's work and skip one's sleep and meals

phrase
fèitónglàntiěHSK 7+

metal scrap; useless rusty metal objects; anything that is broken and useless; junk

noun
lǐ fèi yuè bēngHSK 7+

see 禮崩樂壞|礼崩乐坏[li3 beng1 yue4 huai4]

phrase
wàng cān fèi qǐnHSK 7+

see 廢寢忘食|废寝忘食[fei4 qin3 wang4 shi2]

phrase
yǐrénfèiyánHSK 7+

to reject an opinion because the speaker is not good or not to one's liking

phrase
yīnyēfèishíHSK 7+

to avoid something essential because of a slight risk of making a mistake

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

弃物应该分类处理,有利于环境保护。

Fèiqì wù yīnggāi fēnlèi chǔlǐ, yǒulìyú huánjìng bǎohù.

Waste should be sorted and treated, which is beneficial for environmental protection.

NewsFeb 2026

林智坚接任新职 名医狠酸:12亿球场了还能平步青云?

lín zhì jiān jiē rèn xīn zhí míng yī hěn suān yì qiú chǎng fèi le hái néng píng bù qīng yún ?

Lin Zhijian took over the new position, and the famous doctor was ruthless: 1.2 billion stadiums can still rise to prominence?

NewsFeb 2026

北营性价比重中型钢项目 (BG2026020063)采购...

běi yíng xìng jià bǐ chóng zhōng xíng fèi gāng xiàng mù cǎi gòu . . .

Beiying cost-effective medium-sized scrap project (BG2026020063) procurement...

NewsFeb 2026

独家》警破竹苗大麻农场 车行、弃大楼扣870株新鲜大麻

dú jiā jǐng pò zhú miáo dà má nóng chǎng chē háng fèi qì dà lóu kòu zhū xīn xiān dà má

Exclusive" police break the bamboo seedling cannabis farm car dealership and abandoned building deducted 870 fresh cannabis plants

NewsFeb 2026

日本拆解弃马达提炼稀土,冀摆脱依赖中国

rì běn chāi jiě fèi qì mǎ dá tí liàn xī tǔ , 冀 bǎi tuō yī lài zhōng guó

Japan dismantled abandoned motors to refine rare earths, hoping to get rid of dependence on China

NewsFeb 2026

...艇涉嫌9亿元阴阳约 美记曝雷纳德合约恐作

. . . tǐng shè xián yì yuán yīn yáng yuē měi jì pù léi nà dé gě yuē kǒng zuò fèi

... The boat is suspected of a 900 million yuan yin-yang contract, and Meiji revealed that Renard's contract may be invalidated

Tatoeba

死刑在美国的很多州都被除了。

Sǐxíng zài Měiguó de hěn duō zhōu dōu bèi fèichú le.

The death penalty had been done away with in many states in the USA.

Tatoeba

工厂的料导致了严重的环境污染。

Gōngchǎng de fèiliào dǎozhì le yánzhòng de huánjìng wūrǎn.

The factory waste gave rise to serious environmental pollution.

Tatoeba

一连串的爆炸使实验室成为墟。

Yìliánchuàn de bàozhà shǐ shíyànshì chéngwéi fèixū.

A series of blasts reduced the laboratory to ruins.

Tatoeba

那些旧法都被除了。

Nàxiē jiù fǎ dōu bèi fèichú le.

Those old laws were all done away with.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced fèi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 废 (fèi) mean in Chinese?
废 (fèi) primarily means "waste, to abandon." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1368 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 废 have?
废 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 废?
The radical associated with 废 is 广 (shelter). This radical appears in many characters related to shelter.
What are the components of 废?
废 is composed of: 广 (structural), 发 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸广发 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 废?
Common words with 废 include: 废话 (fèi huà, "nonsense"); 废物 (fèi wù, "rubbish"); 废弃 (fèi qì, "to discard"); 废墟 (fèi xū, "ruins"); 废除 (fèi chú, "to abolish"). There are over 68 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 废 (fèi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fèi: 飞 (to fly), 非 (abbr. for 非洲, Africa), 啡 ((used in loanwords for its phonetic value)), 绯 (dark red), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 废 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 废 and the traditional form is 廢.

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.