(hài): to frighten

(hài) is a Chinese character meaning “to frighten.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2445 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, horse. Its radical form (horse) appears in many related characters such as (, horse), (, to ride), (yàn, to test, to verify).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to frighten

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichorse

Decomposition: ⿰马亥 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hài rén tīng wénshocking
jīng shì hài súuniversally shocking
jīng hàito be shocked
jīng tāo hài làngperilous situation
hài rénterrifying
hài ránoverwhelmed with shock, horror or amazement
hài pàto be afraid
hài kè(computing) (loanword) hacker
fáng hàianti-hacker
wēi hàito intimidate
shā jī hài hóusee 殺雞儆猴|杀鸡儆猴[sha1 ji1 jing3 hou2]
hài yì(literary) astonished
hài làngswelling or stormy seas
zhèn hàito astonish
14
Total compounds
50
As first character
29
As last character
21
As middle character

appears in 14 compound words: 50 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 21 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.

jīng
0.6181,320 co-occurrences
tāo
0.522342 co-occurrences
tīng
0.516732 co-occurrences
biàn
0.51111 co-occurrences
wén
0.485822 co-occurrences
guī
0.452102 co-occurrences
làng
0.429366 co-occurrences
jīng
0.42348 co-occurrences
0.416312 co-occurrences
0.40860 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

hàiréntīngwénHSK 7+

shocking; horrifying; atrocious; terrible

phrase
jīngshìhàisúHSK 7+

extremely shocking; universally shocking

adjective
jīngtāohàilàngHSK 7+

terrifying waves; stormy sea; perilous situation

phrase
shājīhàihóuHSK 7+

to punish an individual as an example to others

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个消息令人然,大家都震惊不已。

Zhè gè xiāoxi lìng rén hàirán, dàjiā dōu zhènjīng bùyǐ.

This news is shocking; everyone is stunned.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Mar 2026

FBI:俄客正瞄准Signal等即时通讯用户

F B I : é hài kè zhèng miáo zhǔn S i g n a l děng jí shí tōng xùn yòng hù

FBI: Russian hackers are targeting users of instant messaging apps like Signal

東森新聞Mar 2026

人!高雄大寮机车骑士卷曳引车底 失去生命...

hài rén ! gāo xióng dà 寮 jī chē qí shì juǎn 曳 yǐn chē de shī qù shēng mìng . . .

Shocking! Motorcyclist in Daliao, Kaohsiung, dragged under a tractor-trailer and killed...

LtnMar 2026

人!南韩航空公司离职副机长砍死机长 密谋...

hài rén ! nán hán háng kōng gōng sī lí zhí fù jī cháng kǎn sǐ jī cháng mì móu . . .

Shocking! Former South Korean airline co-pilot stabs captain to death; the two had conspired...

NewsFeb 2026

...片极限尺度!《墓乃伊》皮肤指甲扭曲变形 人模样曝光

. . . piàn jí xiàn chǐ dù ! mù nǎi yī pí fū zhǐ jiǎ niǔ qū biàn xíng hài rén mó yàng pù guāng

... Piece of extreme scale! "Tomb Nai" skin and nails are twisted and deformed, and the terrifying appearance is exposed

NewsFeb 2026

系统遭不排除顾客资料外流 圆山大饭店启动应变机...

xì tǒng zāo hài bù pái chú gù kè zī liào wài liú yuán shān dà fàn diàn qǐ dòng yīng biàn jī . . .

System Hacked, Customer Data Leak Not Ruled Out Grand Hotel Taipei Activates Emergency Response Mechanism...

Tatoeba

客们找到渗透私人或公共网络的新方法。

Hàikè men zhǎodào shèntòu sīrén huò gōnggòng wǎngluò de xīn fāngfǎ.

Hackers find new ways of infiltrating private or public networks.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced hài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 骇 (hài) mean in Chinese?
骇 (hài) primarily means "to frighten." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2445 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 骇 and 该?
骇 (hài) and 该 (gāi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 马 vs 讠 (same 亥 component).
How many strokes does 骇 have?
骇 is written with 9 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 骇?
The radical associated with 骇 is 马 (horse). This radical appears in many characters related to horse.
What are the components of 骇?
骇 is composed of: 马 (semantic), 亥 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰马亥 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 骇?
Common words with 骇 include: 骇人听闻 (hài rén tīng wén, "shocking"); 惊世骇俗 (jīng shì hài sú, "universally shocking"); 惊骇 (jīng hài, "to be shocked"); 惊涛骇浪 (jīng tāo hài làng, "perilous situation"); 骇人 (hài rén, "terrifying"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 骇 (hài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hài: 咳 (sound of sighing), 孩 ((bound form) child), 还 (still, return), 海 (sea), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 骇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 骇 and the traditional form is 駭.

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.