粪 (fèn): manure, dung

粪 (fèn) is a Chinese character meaning “manure.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 米 (semantic) and 共 (phonetic). It ranks #2684 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 粪 grain. Its radical form 米 (rice) appears in many related characters such as 米 (mǐ, uncooked rice), 类 (lèi, kind), 精 (jīng, essence).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 米 rice12 strokesFrequency #2684米 semantic共 phonetic

Definitions

  1. manure
  2. dung

Etymology & Origin

粪

pictophoneticgrain

Decomposition: ⿱米共 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:米semantic共phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
粪便fèn biànexcrement
粪坑fèn kēnglatrine pit
化粪池huà fèn chíseptic tank
大粪dà fènhuman excrement
粪土fèn tǔdirty soil
粪肥fèn féimanure
鲜花插在牛粪上xiān huā chā zài niú fèn shànglit. a bunch of flowers poked into a pile of manure
视如粪土shì rú fèn tǔto look upon as dirt
粪化石fèn huà shícoprolite
马粪纸mǎ fèn zhǐstrawboard
粪金龟子fèn jīn guī zǐdung beetle
粪道fèn dàocoprodeum (in birds)
满嘴喷粪mǎn zuǐ pēn fènto talk bullshit
粪除fèn chú(literary) to clean up
粪石fèn shícoprolite
28
Total compounds
57
As first character
29
As last character
14
As middle character

粪 appears in 28 compound words: 57 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 14 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 粪 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

便biàn
0.5605,418 co-occurrences
掏tāo
0.504132 co-occurrences
鸟niǎo
0.501792 co-occurrences
尿niào
0.476348 co-occurrences
尝cháng
0.472360 co-occurrences
肠cháng
0.456162 co-occurrences
秽huì
0.44648 co-occurrences
厕cè
0.44260 co-occurrences
扒bā
0.43354 co-occurrences
泄xiè
0.415132 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个粪字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě fèn zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "粪" had different meanings in classical Chinese.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

幽门杆菌粪便检测 吃成药恐测不准

yōu mén gān jūn fèn biàn jiǎn cè chī chéng yào kǒng cè bù zhǔn

Helicobacter stool test Eating over-the-counter medicine may not be accurate

99 健康网Feb 2026

女生徒步失联被找到:用牛粪保温 背后真相令人心疼

nǚ shēng tú bù shī lián bèi zhǎo dào : yòng niú fèn bǎo wēn bèi hòu zhēn xiāng lìng rén xīn téng

The female student was found missing: the truth behind the cow dung was distressing

Tatoeba

别把鲜花插在牛粪上。

Bié bǎ xiānhuāchāzàiniúfènshàng.

Don't cast pearls before swine.

Character Family

米 Radical Family — Characters sharing the rice radical

糙cāo粗cū粹cuì粉fěn糕gāo糊hú精jīng粒lì粮liáng粕pò

Related Characters

米mǐ类lèi精jīng糖táng粗cū粮liáng糊hú糕gāo糟zāo粉fěn

Homophones — Characters pronounced fèn

分fēn吩fēn纷fēn芬fēn氛fēn坟fén

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 粪 (fèn) mean in Chinese?
粪 (fèn) primarily means "manure." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2684 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 粪 and 哄?
粪 (fèn) and 哄 (hōng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 米 vs 口 (same 共 component).
How many strokes does 粪 have?
粪 is written with 12 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 粪?
The radical associated with 粪 is 米 (rice). This radical appears in many characters related to rice.
What are the components of 粪?
粪 is composed of: 米 (semantic), 共 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱米共 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 粪?
Common words with 粪 include: 粪便 (fèn biàn, "excrement"); 粪坑 (fèn kēng, "latrine pit"); 化粪池 (huà fèn chí, "septic tank"); 大粪 (dà fèn, "human excrement"); 粪土 (fèn tǔ, "dirty soil"). There are over 28 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 粪 (fèn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fèn: 分 (to divide), 吩 (used in 吩咐), 纷 (numerous), 芬 (perfume), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 粪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 粪 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.