氦 (hài): helium (chemistry)

氦 (hài) is a Chinese character meaning “helium (chemistry).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 气 (semantic) and 亥 (phonetic). It ranks #3820 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 氦 gas. Its radical form 气 (steam) appears in many related characters such as 气 (qì, gas), 氛 (fēn, miasma), 氧 (yǎng, oxygen (chemistry)).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. helium (chemistry)

Etymology & Origin

氦

pictophoneticgas

Decomposition: ⿹气亥 (layout: surround-from-upper-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
氦气球hài qì qiúhelium balloon
氦气hài qìhelium (gas)
2
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

氦 appears in 2 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 氦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

气qì
0.44215 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

少数派Sep 2026

第四代核电另一项突破是高温气冷堆,采用氦气代替水来作为冷却剂。

dì sì dài hé diàn lìng yī xiàng tū pò shì gāo wēn qì lěng duī , cǎi yòng hài qì dài tì shuǐ lái zuò wéi lěng què jì .

Another breakthrough in fourth-generation nuclear power is the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, which uses helium instead of water as a coolant.

IT之家Jul 2026

随着尘埃逐渐消散,研究团队终于确认,该系统中存在一颗氦星。

suí zhe chén āi zhú jiàn xiāo sàn , yán jiū tuán duì zhōng yú què rèn , gāi xì tǒng zhōng cún zài yī kē hài xīng .

As the dust gradually cleared, the research team finally confirmed the presence of a helium star in the system.

奇客SolidotJul 2026

研究团队瞄准了五种稀有气体——氦、氖、氩、氪、氙。

yán jiū tuán duì miáo zhǔn le wǔ zhǒng xī yǒu qì tǐ — — hài , 氖 , 氩 , 氪 , 氙 .

The research team focused on five noble gases—helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 气 (gas) component

气 Radical Family — Characters sharing the steam radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced hài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 氦 (hài) mean in Chinese?
氦 (hài) primarily means "helium (chemistry)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3820 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 氦 and 该?
氦 (hài) and 该 (gāi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 气 vs 讠 (same 亥 component).
How many strokes does 氦 have?
氦 is written with 10 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 氦?
The radical associated with 氦 is 气 (steam). This radical appears in many characters related to steam.
What are the components of 氦?
氦 is composed of: 气 (semantic), 亥 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿹气亥 with a surround-from-upper-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 氦?
Common words with 氦 include: 氦气球 (hài qì qiú, "helium balloon"); 氦气 (hài qì, "helium (gas)"). There are over 2 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 氦 (hài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hài: 骇 (to frighten). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 氦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 氦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 氦 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.