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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. manure
  2. dung

Etymology & Origin

粪

pictophoneticgrain

Decomposition: ⿱米共 (layout: top-bottom)

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nounfèn biànexcrement
粪坑nounfèn kēnglatrine pit
化粪池nounhuà fèn chíseptic tank
大粪noundà fènhuman excrement
粪土nounfèn tǔdirty soil
粪肥nounfèn 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nounmǎ 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
粪水fèn shuǐwastewater that contains feces
粪除fèn chú(literary) to clean up
29
Total compounds
59
As first character
28
As last character
14
As middle character

粪 appears in 29 compound words: 59 as the first character, 28 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
0.5521,806 co-occurrences
掏tāo
0.49744 co-occurrences
鸟niǎo
0.494264 co-occurrences
尿niào
0.469116 co-occurrences
尝cháng
0.465120 co-occurrences
肠cháng
0.44954 co-occurrences
秽huì
0.44016 co-occurrences
厕cè
0.43620 co-occurrences
扒bā
0.42718 co-occurrences
牛niú
0.423143 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.

少数派Aug 2026

至于牛粪那肯定是要不得,利用率太低,羊粪的话还有些价值。

zhì yú niú fèn nà kěn dìng shì yāo bù dé , lì yòng lǜ tài dī , yáng fèn de huà hái yǒu xiē jià zhí .

As for cow manure, that’s definitely out of the question—it’s too inefficient. Sheep manure, on the other hand, does have some value.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

一开始有些嫌弃捡粪的孩子们,在干爸干妈不断鼓励下,坚持完成了所有清理任务。

yī kāi shǐ yǒu xiē xián qì jiǎn fèn de hái zǐ men , zài gān bà gān mā bù duàn gǔ lì xià , jiān chí wán chéng le suǒ yǒu qīng lǐ rèn wù .

At first, they were a bit put off by the children who were picking up manure, but with constant encouragement from their foster parents, they persevered and completed all the cleanup tasks.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

首先是粪便集卵检查:建议连续3天留取粪便送检,因虫卵排放呈间歇性,单次易漏诊。

shǒu xiān shì fèn biàn jí luǎn jiǎn chá : jiàn yì lián xù 3 tiān liú qǔ fèn biàn sòng jiǎn , yīn chóng luǎn pái fàng chéng jiān xiē xìng , dān cì yì lòu zhěn .

First, a fecal egg examination: It is recommended to collect fecal samples for testing on three consecutive days, as the shedding of parasite eggs is intermittent, and a single sample may result in a missed diagnosis.

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

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 米 (grain) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced fèn

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 恭?
粪 (fèn) and 恭 (gōng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 米 vs 忄 (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 29 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 粪 (fèn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fèn: 分 (to divide), 份 (classifier for gifts, newspaper, magazine, papers, reports, contracts etc), 奋 (to exert oneself (bound form)), 粉 (powder), and 1 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.

Practice writing 粪 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.