耗 (hào): to waste, to spend, to consume

耗 (hào) is a Chinese character meaning “to waste.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 耒 (semantic) and 毛 (phonetic). It ranks #1714 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 耗 plow. Its radical form 耒 (plow) appears in many related characters such as 耕 (gēng, to plow).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to waste
  2. to spend
  3. to consume

Etymology & Origin

耗

pictophoneticplow

Decomposition: ⿰耒毛 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 耗

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
消耗verbxiāo hàoto consume6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
耗子nounhào zi(dialect) mouse
耗尽verbhào jìnto exhaust
耗费verbhào fèito waste
噩耗nounè hàonews of sb's death
损耗verbsǔn hàoloss
耗时adjectivehào shítime-consuming
耗资verbhào zīto spend
消耗品nounxiāo hào pǐnconsumable goods
耗油量hào yóu liàngfuel consumption
能耗nounnéng hàoenergy consumption
耗电verbhào diànto consume electricity
油耗nounyóu hàofuel consumption
耗损verbhào sǔnto waste
耗材verbhào cáiconsumables
消耗战nounxiāo hào zhànwar of attrition
36
Total compounds
42
As first character
39
As last character
19
As middle character

耗 appears in 36 compound words: 42 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 19 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 耗 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

噩è
0.617796 co-occurrences
消xiāo
0.56619,774 co-occurrences
尽jǐn
0.5103,262 co-occurrences
损sǔn
0.4731,690 co-occurrences
燃rán
0.4691,928 co-occurrences
油yóu
0.4663,172 co-occurrences
费fèi
0.4442,100 co-occurrences
忍rěn
0.43214 co-occurrences
功gōng
0.4264,012 co-occurrences
资zī
0.4234,188 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

狗拿耗子gǒu ná hào ziHSK 6+

lit. a dog who catches mice; to be meddlesome (idiom)

phrase
耗子尾汁hàoziwěizhīHSK 6+

eye dialect spelling of 好自為之 /好自为之

phrase
猫哭耗子māo kū hào ziHSK 6+

the cat weeps for the dead mouse (idiom); hypocritical pretence of condolence; crocodile tears

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习耗字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí hào zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "耗" requires repeated practice to achieve neat handwriting.

美通社Feb 2026

...r 技术实现更高灵敏度并减少样品与溶剂消耗

. . . r jì shù shí xiàn gēng gāo líng mǐn dù bìng jiǎn shǎo yàng pǐn yǔ róng jì xiāo hào

... R technology enables higher sensitivity and reduced sample and solvent consumption

InvestingFeb 2026

【早报】仅1纳米、功耗最低!北大实现芯片领域重要突破;美最高法...

zǎo bào jǐn 1 nà mǐ , gōng hào zuì dī ! běi dà shí xiàn xīn piàn lǐng yù chóng yāo tū pò ; měi zuì gāo fǎ . . .

【Morning Post】Only 1 nanometer, the lowest power consumption! Peking University has achieved an important breakthrough in the field of chips; The U.S. Supreme Court...

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

伊朗武装部队总参谋长:敌人试图以“战略消耗”动摇体制、打击民众士气

yī lǎng wǔ zhuāng bù duì zǒng cān móu cháng : dí rén shì tú yǐ zhàn lüè xiāo hào dòng yáo tǐ zhì , dǎ jī mín zhòng shì qì

Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces: The enemy is trying to shake the system and hit the morale of the people with "strategic attrition"

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...蕙81岁母亲初二离世!陈思安忍3天痛揭噩耗:爸妈天上团聚了

. . . 蕙 8 1 suì mǔ qīn chū èr lí shì ! chén sī ān rěn 3 tiān tòng jiē è hào : bà mā tiān shàng tuán jù le

... Hui's 81-year-old mother passed away on the second day of junior high school! Chen Si'an endured for 3 days to reveal the bad news: his parents were reunited in heaven

Tatoeba

这个引擎耗用最多的油。

Zhège yǐnqíng hào yòng zuì duō de yóu.

This engine consumes the most oil.

Tatoeba

我们消耗了所有的自然资源。

Wǒmen xiāohào le suǒyǒu de zìránzīyuán.

We have consumed all the natural resources.

Tatoeba

瑞士人消耗不少啤酒。

Ruìshìrén xiāohào bù shǎo píjiǔ.

The Swiss consume a large amount of beer.

Tatoeba

有关癌症成因的研究耗费颇巨。

Yǒuguān áizhèng chéngyīn de yánjiū hàofèi pō jù.

Research on the causes of cancer is very expensive.

Tatoeba

东欧的酒精消耗量比西欧高。

Dōng ōu de jiǔjīng xiāohàoliàng bǐ Xī'ōu gāo.

Alcohol consumption is higher in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 耒 (plow) component

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced hào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 耗 (hào) mean in Chinese?
耗 (hào) primarily means "to waste." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1714 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 耗 and 髦?
耗 (hào) and 髦 (máo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 耒 vs 髟 (same 毛 component).
How many strokes does 耗 have?
耗 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 耗?
The radical associated with 耗 is 耒 (plow). This radical appears in many characters related to plow.
What are the components of 耗?
耗 is composed of: 耒 (semantic), 毛 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰耒毛 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 耗?
Common words with 耗 include: 耗子 (hào zi, "(dialect) mouse"); 消耗 (xiāo hào, "to consume"); 耗尽 (hào jìn, "to exhaust"); 耗费 (hào fèi, "to waste"); 噩耗 (è hào, "news of sb's death"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 耗 (hào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hào: 好 (good), 号 (ordinal number), 毫 (hair), 豪 (grand), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 耗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 耗 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 耗 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.