(fèn): to exert oneself (bound form)

(fèn) is a Chinese character meaning “to exert oneself (bound form).” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1260 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a man 大 working on the farm 田. Its radical form (big) appears in many related characters such as (, big), (tiān, day), (tài, highest).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to exert oneself (bound form)

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA man 大 working on the farm 田

Decomposition: ⿱大田 (layout: top-bottom)

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

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjective/verbxīng fènexcited4
verbfèn dòuto strive5
adjectiveqín fènhardworking5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xīng fèn jìstimulant
fèn lìto do everything one can
zhèn fènto stir oneself up
fèn zhànto fight bravely
kàng fènexcited
gū jūn fèn zhànlit. lone army putting up a brave fight (idiom)
fèn qǐto rise vigorously
zì gào fèn yǒngto volunteer for
fèn yǒngdauntless
lìng rén zhèn fèninspiring
fèn jìnto advance bravely
fèn bù gù shēnto dash on bravely with no thought of personal safety (idiom)
fèn qǐ zhí zhuīto catch up vigorously
fèn fāto rouse to vigorous action
jiān kǔ fèn dòuto struggle arduously
34
Total compounds
47
As first character
29
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 34 compound words: 47 as the first character, 29 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.

xīng
0.60614,015 co-occurrences
dǒu
0.59012,058 co-occurrences
0.5664,290 co-occurrences
qín
0.5364,781 co-occurrences
jiān
0.520924 co-occurrences
yǒng
0.4743,036 co-occurrences
zhèn
0.4462,139 co-occurrences
0.424528 co-occurrences
0.4131,194 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.412270 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

fāfèntúqiángHSK 4+

to work diligently (ex. to make the country strong)

phrase
fèn bǐ jí shūHSK 5+

to write at a tremendous speed

phrase
fènbùgùshēnHSK 4+

to dash ahead without regard to one's personal safety

phrase
fènfātúqiángHSK 4+

to go all out to achieve success

phrase
fèn qǐ zhí zhuīHSK 5+

to catch up vigorously; to set off in hot pursuit

phrase
fèn wǔ yáng wēiHSK 5+

a show of strength

phrase
gūjūnfènzhànHSK 6+

lone army putting up a brave fight; fighting alone without help; struggling hard without support

phrase
jiānkǔfèndòuHSK 5+

to struggle through difficult times; to work hard and push through despite hardship

phrase
zìgàofènyǒngHSK 4+

to offer to do something voluntarily and enthusiastically; to volunteer for

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

fèn zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "奋" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

BastillepostMar 2026

爱猫雪中嬉戏超兴 饲主兴录影细看惊觉:在捕猎?

ài māo xuě zhōng xī xì chāo xīng fèn sì zhǔ xīng fèn lù yǐng xì kàn jīng jué : zài bǔ liè ?

The owner was excited to watch the video excitedly: Hunting?

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

以优良作风进新征程——“树立和践行正确政绩观”系列...

yǐ yōu liáng zuò fēng fèn jìn xīn zhēng chéng — — shù lì hé jiàn háng zhèng què zhèng jì guàn xì liè . . .

Forge ahead on a new journey with a good style - "Establishing and Practicing a Correct View of Political Performance" series...

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

圆梦!王贞治赠福冈软银鹰外套 赖清德兴喊:把我签下来?

yuán mèng ! wáng zhēn zhì zèng fú gāng ruǎn yín yīng wài tào lài qīng dé xīng fèn hǎn : bǎ wǒ qiān xià lái ?

Dream come true! Wang Zhenzhi gave Fukuoka SoftBank Eagle jacket Lai Qingde shouted excitedly: Sign me down?

EtnetFeb 2026

《日出而作》英伟达季绩及指引均振,长和系出售英配电商料落袋千亿

rì chū ér zuò yīng wěi dá jì jì jí zhǐ yǐn jūn zhèn fèn , cháng hé xì chū shòu yīng pèi diàn shāng liào luò dài qiān yì

Nvidia's quarterly results and guidance are exciting, and Changhe's sale of British distribution e-commerce is expected to pocket 100 billion

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春“不打烊”:梁山港的坚守与

xīn chūn bù dǎ 烊 : liáng shān gǎng de jiān shǒu yǔ fèn jìn

New Year "not closed": Liangshan Port's perseverance and progress

Tatoeba

一名伟大的战士威力显著,无需抵死战。

Yī míng wěidà de zhànshì wēilì xiǎnzhù, wúxū dǐ sǐ fènzhàn.

A great warrior radiates strength. He doesn't have to fight to the death.

Tatoeba

汤姆其实并不懒,相反他很勤

Tāngmǔ qíshí bìngbù lǎn, xiāngfǎn tā hěn qínfèn.

Tom isn't a lazy boy. As a matter of fact, he works hard.

Tatoeba

日本人是勤的国民。

Rìběnrén shì qínfèn de guómín.

The Japanese are an industrious people.

Tatoeba

她兴地翻了翻书页。

Tā xīngfèn de fān le fān shūyè.

She turned over the page with excitement.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced fèn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 奋 (fèn) mean in Chinese?
奋 (fèn) primarily means "to exert oneself (bound form)." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1260 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 奋 have?
奋 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 奋?
The radical associated with 奋 is 大 (big). This radical appears in many characters related to big.
What are the components of 奋?
奋 is composed of: 大 (structural), 田 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱大田 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 奋?
Common words with 奋 include: 兴奋 (xīng fèn, "excited"); 奋斗 (fèn dòu, "to strive"); 兴奋剂 (xīng fèn jì, "stimulant"); 奋力 (fèn lì, "to do everything one can"); 振奋 (zhèn fèn, "to stir oneself up"). There are over 34 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 奋 (fèn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fèn: 分 (to divide), 吩 (used in 吩咐), 纷 (numerous), 芬 (perfume), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 奋 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 奋 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.