孵 (fū): breeding, to incubate, to hatch

孵 (fū) is a Chinese character meaning “breeding.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 卵 (structural) and 孚 (structural). It ranks #2857 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 孵 to brood 孚 over eggs 卵. Its radical form 子 (child) appears in many related characters such as 子 (zǐ, son), 字 (zì, letter), 学 (xué, to learn).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 子 child14 strokesFrequency #2857卵 structural孚 structural

Definitions

  1. breeding
  2. to incubate
  3. to hatch

Etymology & Origin

孵

ideographicTo brood 孚 over eggs 卵

Decomposition: ⿰卵孚 (layout: left-right)

Components:卵structural孚structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
孵化fū huàbreeding
孵化器fū huà qìincubator (for eggs or startup businesses)
孵化场fū huà chǎngincubator
孵卵fū luǎnto hatch
孵化期fū huà qīincubation period
孵育fū yùto incubate
孵蛋fū dànto incubate
7
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

孵 appears in 7 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 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 孵 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

卵luǎn
0.6586,348 co-occurrences
化huà
0.56125,362 co-occurrences
蛋dàn
0.5574,452 co-occurrences
幼yòu
0.4742,322 co-occurrences
巢cháo
0.472930 co-occurrences
雌cí
0.438696 co-occurrences
鸟niǎo
0.400486 co-occurrences
具jù
0.3741,944 co-occurrences
器qì
0.3732,118 co-occurrences
刚gāng
0.353270 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个孵字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

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

The character "孵" carries different meanings in classical Chinese.

SmzdmApr 2026

赛季精灵怎么孵蛋?赛季异色精灵怎么孵?洛克王国世界怎么...

sài jì jīng líng zěn má fū dàn ? sài jì yì sè jīng líng zěn má fū ? Luò kè wáng guó shì jiè zěn má . . .

SmzdmApr 2026

孵蛋攻略,一站式学会!从配种到下蛋,精灵蛋...

fū dàn gōng lüè , yī zhàn shì xué huì ! cóng pèi zhǒng dào xià dàn , jīng líng dàn . . .

SmzdmApr 2026

洛克王国家园孵蛋核心机制与布局攻略

Luò kè wáng guó jiā yuán fū dàn hé xīn jī zhì yǔ bù jú gōng lüè

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

新北小巨蛋2年孵不出 BOT案第3次流标

xīn běi xiǎo jù dàn 2 nián fū bù chū B O T àn dì 3 cì liú biāo

三立新聞網Mar 2026

科博馆还原7千万年前 揭窃蛋龙孵蛋之谜

kē bó guǎn hái yuán 7 qiān wàn nián qián jiē qiè dàn lóng fū dàn zhī mèi

Science Museum Recreates Life 70 Million Years Ago, Unraveling the Mystery of Oviraptor Egg-Laying

Character Family

子 Radical Family — Characters sharing the child radical

存cún孤gū孩hái季jì孔kǒng孙sūn学xué孕yùn子zǐ字zì

Related Characters

子zǐ字zì学xué孩hái存cún孙sūn季jì孤gū孔kǒng孕yùn

Homophones — Characters pronounced fū

夫fū服fú符fú福fú府fǔ父fù付fù负fù复fù富fù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 孵 (fū) mean in Chinese?
孵 (fū) primarily means "breeding." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2857 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 孵 have?
孵 is written with 14 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 孵?
The radical associated with 孵 is 子 (child). This radical appears in many characters related to child.
What are the components of 孵?
孵 is composed of: 卵 (structural), 孚 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰卵孚 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 孵?
Common words with 孵 include: 孵化 (fū huà, "breeding"); 孵化器 (fū huà qì, "incubator (for eggs or startup businesses)"); 孵化场 (fū huà chǎng, "incubator"); 孵卵 (fū luǎn, "to hatch"); 孵化期 (fū huà qī, "incubation period"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 孵 (fū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fū: 夫 (husband), 服 (clothes, serve), 符 (mark), 福 (abbr. for Fujian province 福建省), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 孵 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 孵 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 孵 with real-time feedback

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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.