盒 (hé): small box, case

盒 (hé) is a Chinese character meaning “small box.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 合 (phonetic) and 皿 (semantic). It ranks #2034 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 盒 container. Its radical form 皿 (dish) appears in many related characters such as 益 (yì, benefit), 盐 (yán, salt), 盖 (gài, lid).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. small box
  2. case

Etymology & Origin

盒

pictophoneticcontainer

Decomposition: ⿱合皿 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 盒

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
盒子nounhé zibox4
盒饭nounhé fànmeal in a partitioned box5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
饭盒nounfàn hélunchbox
骨灰盒noungǔ huī hébox for bone ashes
纸盒nounzhǐ hépaperboard box
铅笔盒nounqiān bǐ hépencil case
盒带nounhé dàicassette tape (abbr. for 盒式錄音磁帶|盒式录音磁带)
墨盒nounmò héink cartridge
八音盒nounbā yīn hémusic box
粉盒nounfěn hé(cosmetics) powder box
暗盒nounàn hémagazine
鼻烟盒nounbí yān hésnuffbox
接线盒jiē xiàn héjunction box (elec.)
保险盒nounbǎo xiǎn héfuse box
盒式录音磁带hé shì lù yīn cí dàicassette tape
开盒verbkāi hé(slang) to dox
音乐盒nounyīn yuè hémusic box
34
Total compounds
15
As first character
79
As last character
6
As middle character

盒 appears in 34 compound words: 15 as the first character, 79 as the last, and 6 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 盒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

盲máng
0.459344 co-occurrences
朵duǒ
0.451464 co-occurrences
饭fàn
0.436272 co-occurrences
柴chái
0.415518 co-occurrences
子zǐ
0.4025,952 co-occurrences
装zhuāng
0.3981,078 co-occurrences
碟dié
0.392280 co-occurrences
顶dǐng
0.386448 co-occurrences
烟yān
0.370188 co-occurrences
餐cān
0.370416 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

韭菜盒子jiǔcài héziHSK 4+

garlic chives wrap (a type of food)

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

盒字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

hé zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "盒" has different usages in different contexts.

It之家Feb 2026

Epic 喜加二:《盒子:丢失的碎片》《我的夜间工作》游戏免费...

E p i c xǐ jiā èr : hé zǐ : diū shī de suì piàn wǒ de yè jiān gōng zuò yóu xì miǎn fèi . . .

Epic JoyPlus II: The Box: Lost Pieces My Night Job Games Free...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...人机交通管理系统 首批 32 个“监管沙盒”项目已展开测试

. . . rén jī jiāo tōng guǎn lǐ xì tǒng shǒu pī 3 2 gè jiān guǎn shā hé xiàng mù yǐ zhǎn kāi cè shì

... The first batch of 32 "regulatory sandbox" projects for human-machine traffic management systems have been tested

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...古力成英国盗贼热门目标 商家祭出透明防盗盒应对

. . . gǔ lì chéng yīng guó dào zéi rè mén mù biāo shāng jiā jì chū tòu míng fáng dào hé yīng duì

... Guli has become a popular target for British thieves, and merchants have offered transparent anti-theft boxes to deal with it

三立新聞網Feb 2026

以为黄金!贼闯宅偷宝盒 他:是我肾结石

yǐ wéi huáng jīn ! zéi chuǎng zhái tōu bǎo hé tā : shì wǒ shèn jié shí

Think it's gold! Thieves break into the house and steal treasure boxes He: It's my kidney stones

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|超六成受访青年认为购买潮玩盲盒是“为情..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng chāo liù chéng shòu fǎng qīng nián rèn wéi gòu mǎi cháo wán máng hé shì wéi qíng . .

More than 60% of the young people surveyed believe that buying trendy blind boxes is "for love:

Tatoeba

我把盒子扛在肩上。

Wǒ bǎ hézi gāng zài jiān shàng.

I carried the box on my shoulder.

Tatoeba

你为什么打开这个盒子?

Nǐ wèishénme dǎkāi zhège hézi?

Why did you open the box?

Tatoeba

我的巧克力盒在哪里?

Wǒ de qiǎokèlì hé zài nǎlǐ?

Where's my box of chocolates?

Tatoeba

主机板的包装盒在哪里?

Zhǔjībǎn de bāozhuāng hé zài nǎlǐ?

Where's the box the motherboard came in?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 皿 (container) component

皿 Radical Family — Characters sharing the dish radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced hé

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 盒 (hé) mean in Chinese?
盒 (hé) primarily means "small box." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2034 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 盒 and 大?
盒 (hé) and 大 (dà) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 盒 (small) vs 大 (big).
How many strokes does 盒 have?
盒 is written with 11 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 盒?
The radical associated with 盒 is 皿 (dish). This radical appears in many characters related to dish.
What are the components of 盒?
盒 is composed of: 合 (phonetic), 皿 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱合皿 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 盒?
Common words with 盒 include: 盒子 (hé zi, "box"); 饭盒 (fàn hé, "lunchbox"); 骨灰盒 (gǔ huī hé, "box for bone ashes"); 纸盒 (zhǐ hé, "paperboard box"); 盒饭 (hé fàn, "meal in a partitioned box"). There are over 34 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 盒 (hé)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hé: 和 (and, peace), 合 (to close), 何 (what, how), 河 (river), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 盒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 盒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 盒 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.