核 (hé): pit, stone, nucleus

核 (hé) is a Chinese character meaning “pit.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 亥 (phonetic). It ranks #828 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 核 tree. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. pit
  2. stone
  3. nucleus

Etymology & Origin

核

pictophonetictree

Decomposition: ⿰木亥 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 核

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
核心nounhé xīncore6
考核verbkǎo héto examine6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
核弹nounhé dànnuclear bomb
核武器nounhé wǔ qìnuclear weapon
核磁共振nounhé cí gòng zhènnuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
核对verbhé duìto check
核实verbhé shíto verify
核查verbhé cháto examine
核桃nounhé taowalnut
核电站nounhé diàn zhànnuclear power plant
审核verbshěn héto audit
核能nounhé néngnuclear energy
核子nounhé zǐnuclear
核爆hé bàonuclear explosion
肺结核nounfèi jié hétuberculosis
地核noundì hé(geology) Earth's core
核弹头nounhé dàn tóunuclear reentry vehicle
101
Total compounds
59
As first character
38
As last character
3
As middle character

核 appears in 101 compound words: 59 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 3 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 核 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

酸suān
0.63427,586 co-occurrences
心xīn
0.572100,656 co-occurrences
检jiǎn
0.53211,234 co-occurrences
测cè
0.50611,342 co-occurrences
筛shāi
0.4841,206 co-occurrences
糖táng
0.4764,944 co-occurrences
准zhǔn
0.46811,370 co-occurrences
审shěn
0.4464,740 co-occurrences
堆duī
0.4282,070 co-occurrences
稽jī
0.4261,631 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

朝鲜核谈cháo xiǎn hé tánHSK 6+

talks on North Korea's nuclear program

phrase
核磁共振hécí gòngzhènHSK 7+

nuclear magnetic resonance

noun
核子医学hé zǐ yī xuéHSK 6+

(Tw) nuclear medicine

phrase
结核菌素jié hé jūn sùHSK 6+

tubercule bacillus

phrase
脱氧核糖tuōyǎng hétángHSK 6+

deoxyribose; semen

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

爷爷在门前种了一棵核苗,现在已经长得很高了。

yé yé zài mén qián zhǒng le yī kē hé miáo , xiàn zài yǐ jīng cháng dé hěn gāo le .

Grandpa planted a walnut sapling by the door, and now it has grown very tall.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

阿曼:美伊26日再次瑞士谈判 伊朗外长:核问题仍可能外交解决

ā 曼 : měi yī 2 6 rì zài cì ruì shì tán pàn yī lǎng wài cháng : hé wèn tí réng kě néng wài jiāo jiě jué

Oman: The United States and Iran held talks again in Switzerland on the 26th Iranian Foreign Minister: The nuclear issue may still be resolved diplomatically

EttodayFeb 2026

...洲新车累积销量突破百万辆”!电动化布局成核心动能

. . . zhōu xīn chē lěi jī xiāo liàng tū pò bǎi wàn liàng ! diàn dòng huà bù jú chéng hé xīn dòng néng

... The cumulative sales of new cars in the continent exceeded one million units"! Electrification layout has become the core driving force

English News - RthkFeb 2026

...称若收到伊朗详细方案美方准备再与伊方举行核谈判

. . . chèn ruò shōu dào yī lǎng xiáng xì fāng àn měi fāng zhǔn bèi zài yǔ yī fāng jǔ háng hé tán pàn

... It said that if it receives Iran's detailed plan, the United States is ready to hold nuclear negotiations with Iran again

東方日報Feb 2026

食八宝饭误吞枣核 62岁翁肚大如孕妇

shí bā bǎo fàn wù tūn zǎo hé 6 2 suì wēng dù dà rú yùn fù

Eating eight treasure rice and mistakenly swallowing jujube kernels, the 62-year-old man's belly is as big as a pregnant woman

百度新闻Feb 2026

北京海淀:春晚同款机器人返场,硬核科技“打开”庙会

běi jīng hǎi diàn : chūn wǎn tóng kuǎn jī qì rén fǎn chǎng , yìng hé kē jì dǎ kāi miào huì

Beijing Haidian: The same robot returns to the Spring Festival Gala, and hard-core technology "opens" the temple fair

Tatoeba

核战争将会为人类带来灭亡。

Hézhàn zhēng jiānghuì wéirén lèi dàilái mièwáng.

A nuclear war will bring about the destruction of mankind.

Tatoeba

他用牙齿咬碎了核桃。

Tāyòng yáchǐ yǎo suì le hétao.

He cracked the walnut with his teeth.

Tatoeba

汤姆试图敲碎一颗核桃而不损坏果仁。

Tāngmǔ shìtú qiāo suì yī kē hétao ér bù sǔnhuài guǒrén.

Tom tried to crack a walnut without damaging its kernel.

Tatoeba

我们所有的人都想除掉核子武器。

Wǒmen suǒyǒu de rén dōu xiǎng chúdiào hézǐ wǔqì.

All of us would like to get rid of nuclear weapons.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (tree) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced hé

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 核 (hé) mean in Chinese?
核 (hé) primarily means "pit." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #828 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 核 and 该?
核 (hé) and 该 (gāi) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 讠 (same 亥 component).
How many strokes does 核 have?
核 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 核?
The radical associated with 核 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 核?
核 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 亥 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木亥 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 核?
Common words with 核 include: 核弹 (hé dàn, "nuclear bomb"); 核心 (hé xīn, "core"); 核武器 (hé wǔ qì, "nuclear weapon"); 核磁共振 (hé cí gòng zhèn, "nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)"); 核对 (hé duì, "to check"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 核 (hé)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hé: 阂 (obstruct), 和 (and, peace), 合 (to close). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 核 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 核 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 核 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.