吩 (fēn): used in 吩咐, used in transliteration of chemical compounds

吩 (fēn) is a Chinese character meaning “used in 吩咐.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 分 (phonetic). It ranks #2237 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 吩 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 口 mouth7 strokesFrequency #2237口 semantic分 phonetic

Definitions

  1. used in 吩咐
  2. used in transliteration of chemical compounds

Etymology & Origin

吩

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口分 (layout: left-right)

Components:口semantic分phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
吩咐fēn futo tell
吩坦尼fēn tǎn nífentanyl (loanword) (Tw)
头孢噻吩tóu bāo sāi fēn(pharm.) cefalotin (aka cephalothin)
苯并噻吩běn bìng sāi fēnbenzothiophene C8H9, a heterocyclic compound (with one benzene ring and one cyclopentene ring)
卟吩bǔ fēnporphin C20H14N4 (loanword)
吩嗪fēn qínphenazine (loanword)
噻吩sāi fēnthiophene (chemistry) (loanword)
7
Total compounds
43
As first character
57
As last character
0
As middle character

吩 appears in 7 compound words: 43 as the first character, 57 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 吩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

咐fù
0.9016,888 co-occurrences
坦tǎn
0.353306 co-occurrences
菌jūn
0.32284 co-occurrences
你nǐ
0.313216 co-occurrences
挪nuó
0.31142 co-occurrences
摩mó
0.310138 co-occurrences
氧yǎng
0.30672 co-occurrences
尼ní
0.305402 co-occurrences
聚jù
0.301114 co-occurrences
他tā
0.2961,104 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他吩干舌燥地讲了两个小时，终于说服了大家。

tā fēn gān jī zào dì jiǎng le liǎng gě xiǎo shí , zhōng yú shuō fú le dà jiā .

He talked for two hours until his tongue was parched, and finally managed to convince everyone.

Tatoeba

接下来该怎么做，我完全听从您的吩咐。

Jiēxiàlái gāi zěnme zuò, wǒ wánquán tīngcóng nín de fēnfù.

I will follow your advice fully from here onwards.

Character Family

口 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mouth radical

啊a哎āi哀āi唉āi叭bā吧ba哺bǔ嘈cáo唱chàng嘲cháo

Related Characters

口kǒu叫jiào右yòu号hào吃chī同tóng名míng后hòu吗ma吧ba

Homophones — Characters pronounced fēn

纷fēn芬fēn氛fēn粉fěn分fēn坟fén焚fén

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 吩 (fēn) mean in Chinese?
吩 (fēn) primarily means "used in 吩咐." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2237 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 吩 and 盼?
吩 (fēn) and 盼 (pàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 目 (same 分 component).
How many strokes does 吩 have?
吩 is written with 7 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 吩?
The radical associated with 吩 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 吩?
吩 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 分 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口分 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 吩?
Common words with 吩 include: 吩咐 (fēn fu, "to tell"); 吩坦尼 (fēn tǎn ní, "fentanyl (loanword) (Tw)"); 头孢噻吩 (tóu bāo sāi fēn, "(pharm.) cefalotin (aka cephalothin)"); 苯并噻吩 (běn bìng sāi fēn, "benzothiophene C8H9, a heterocyclic compound (with one benzene ring and one cyclopentene ring)"); 卟吩 (bǔ fēn, "porphin C20H14N4 (loanword)"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 吩 (fēn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fēn: 纷 (numerous), 芬 (perfume), 氛 (miasma), 粉 (powder), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 吩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 吩 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.