(): decay, rotten

() is a Chinese character meaning “decay.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 广 (structural). It ranks #1566 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, meat. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation
HSK 5Radical: meat14 strokesFrequency #1566广 structural

Definitions

  1. decay
  2. rotten

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmeat

Decomposition: ⿸广⿱付肉 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Components:广structural

Stroke Order

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

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
noundòu futofu5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fǔ lànto rot
fǔ bàicorruption
fǔ shícorrosion
fǔ xiǔrotten
fáng fǔrotproof
fǔ huàto rot
fáng fǔ jìpreservative
fǔ chòurotten (smell)
fǔ ròurotting flesh
chén fǔtrite
fǔ shí xìng(lit. and fig.) corrosive
yū fǔpedantic
dòu fu pítofu skin (made by drying the skin that forms on the surface of soymilk during cooking, and therefore not actually ma...
dòu fu gānsee 豆干[dou4 gan1]
tān wū fǔ huà(idiom) corruption
71
Total compounds
30
As first character
32
As last character
38
As middle character

appears in 71 compound words: 30 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 38 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.

shí
0.69410,198 co-occurrences
dòu
0.66920,038 co-occurrences
bài
0.64530,382 co-occurrences
làn
0.6384,870 co-occurrences
xiǔ
0.6304,656 co-occurrences
tān
0.6155,453 co-occurrences
chòu
0.5142,010 co-occurrences
nài
0.4612,088 co-occurrences
0.4552,724 co-occurrences
fǎn
0.42611,898 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

fǎnfǔchàngliánHSK 7+

to fight corruption and uphold integrity; to fight corruption and build a clean government

phrase
jiā cháng dòu fuHSK 5+

home-style tofu

phrase
jù fǔ fáng biànHSK 5+

to fight corruption and forestall moral degeneration

phrase
liúshuǐbùfǔHSK 5+

Flowing water is never stale; A rolling stone gathers no moss

phrase
mápó dòufuHSK 5+

mapo doufu, a Sichuan dish made of stir-fried beancurd in chili sauce

noun
齿qiè chǐ fǔ xīnHSK 5+

to detest sth or sb to the utmost extreme (idiom)

phrase
tān wū fǔ huàHSK 7+

(idiom) corruption

phrase
xìngrén dòufuHSK 7+

annin tofu; almond tofu

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le fǔ zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "腐" in the dictionary.

WorldjournalFeb 2026

洛城律师涉石油贪 收中国国企子公司210万美元贿赂

洛 chéng lǜ shī shè shí yóu tān fǔ shōu zhōng guó guó qǐ zǐ gōng sī 2 1 0 wàn měi yuán huì lù

Los Angeles lawyer involved in oil corruption accepted $2.1 million in bribes from a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned enterprise

99 健康网Feb 2026

不升糖的食品有哪些?绿叶菜、鸡蛋、豆几乎不升糖吗

bù shēng táng de shí pǐn yǒu nǎ xiē ? lǜ xié cài , jī dàn , dòu fǔ jī hū bù shēng táng ma

What are the foods that do not raise blood sugar? Green leafy vegetables, eggs, and tofu hardly raise sugar

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

“超级皖”美食争霸赛总决赛收官 豆发源地淮南夺冠

chāo jí 皖 měi shí zhēng bà sài zǒng jué sài shōu guān dòu fǔ fā yuán dì huái nán duó guàn

The finals of the "Super Anhui" Food Championship ended with Huainan, the birthplace of tofu, winning the championship

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

《异能》金度勋疑吃Karina豆!被目击揉她手指 亲喊冤:我手痒

yì néng jīn dù xūn yí chī K a r i n a dòu fǔ ! bèi mù jī róu tā shǒu zhǐ qīn hǎn yuān : wǒ shǒu yǎng

"Superpower" Kim Do-hoon suspected of eating Karina tofu! was witnessed rubbing her fingers and shouting injustice: My hands itch

LtnFeb 2026

Karina被吃豆?韩男星澄清:我是手痒

K a r i n a bèi chī dòu fǔ ? hán nán xīng chéng qīng : wǒ shì shǒu yǎng

Karina was eaten tofu? The Korean actor clarified: I have itchy hands

Tatoeba

政治家以揭露政府官员的败来推动改革。

Zhèngzhìjiā yǐ jiēlù zhèngfǔguānyuán de fǔbài lái tuīdòng gǎigé.

The politician pushed for reform by denouncing the corruption of the government officials.

Tatoeba

不含香料、防剂及人造色素。

Bù hán xiāngliào, fángfǔjì jí rénzào sèsù.

No artificial colours, preservatives or flavours.

Tatoeba

酸性会蚀含有金属的物质。

Suānxìng huì fǔshí hányǒu jīnshǔ de wùzhì.

Acid acts on things which contain metal.

Tatoeba

让我们赶走败的政客!

Ràng wǒmen gǎnzǒu fǔbài de zhèngkè!

Let's chase out corrupt politicians!

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 腐 (fǔ) mean in Chinese?
腐 (fǔ) primarily means "decay." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1566 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 腐 have?
腐 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 腐?
The radical associated with 腐 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 腐?
腐 is composed of: 广 (structural), undefined (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸广⿱付肉 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 腐?
Common words with 腐 include: 腐烂 (fǔ làn, "to rot"); 豆腐 (dòu fu, "tofu"); 腐败 (fǔ bài, "corruption"); 腐蚀 (fǔ shí, "corrosion"); 腐朽 (fǔ xiǔ, "rotten"). There are over 71 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 腐 (fǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fǔ: 符 (mark), 府 (government office), 夫 (husband), 服 (clothes, serve), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 腐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 腐 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.