烘 (hōng): to bake, to heat by fire, to set off by contrast

烘 (hōng) is a Chinese character meaning “to bake.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 火 (semantic) and 共 (phonetic). It ranks #2861 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 烘 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 灯 (dēng, lamp, light), 烟 (yān, smoke).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to bake
  2. to heat by fire
  3. to set off by contrast

Etymology & Origin

烘

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火共 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
烘干verbhōng gānto dry over a stove
烘烤verbhōng kǎoto roast
臭烘烘adjectivechòu hōng hōngstinking
烘焙verbhōng bèito cure by drying over a fire (tea, meat etc)
烘制hōng zhìto bake
烘托verbhōng tuōbackground (of a painting)
暖烘烘adjectivenuǎn hōng hōngnice and warm
烘炉nounhōng lúoven
烘手机nounhōng shǒu jīhand dryer
烘干机nounhōng gān jīclothes dryer
烘手器hōng shǒu qìhand dryer
烘云托月hōng yún tuō yuèlit. to shade in the clouds to offset the moon (idiom)
烘动hōng dòngvariant of 轟動|轰动
烘碗机hōng wǎn jīdish dryer
烘笼儿hōng lóng rbamboo drying frame
24
Total compounds
88
As first character
4
As last character
8
As middle character

烘 appears in 24 compound words: 88 as the first character, 4 as the last, and 8 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 烘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

焙bèi
0.8692,926 co-occurrences
烤kǎo
0.7031,628 co-occurrences
干gān
0.445590 co-occurrences
氛fēn
0.44265 co-occurrences
炉lú
0.43892 co-occurrences
培péi
0.437404 co-occurrences
坊fāng
0.432260 co-occurrences
啡fēi
0.432158 co-occurrences
糕gāo
0.431114 co-occurrences
托tuō
0.429476 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

烘云托月hōng yún tuō yuèHSK 7+

lit. to shade in the clouds to offset the moon (idiom); fig. a foil; a contrasting character to a main hero

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

厨师用猛烘爆炒,锅里的菜肴香气四溢。

chú shī yòng měng hōng bào chǎo , guō lǐ de cài 肴 xiāng qì sì yì .

The chef stir-fried the ingredients over high heat, filling the kitchen with the aroma of the cooking dish.

爱范儿Aug 2026

不得不说,这两扇对开门对于“豪华感”的烘托,的确非常到位。

bù dé bù shuō , zhè liǎng shān duì kāi mén duì yú háo huá gǎn de hōng tuō , de què fēi cháng dào wèi .

I have to say, these two opposing doors really do a great job of enhancing the “luxurious feel.”

少数派Aug 2026

氛围烘托的晕染感还好,浓郁度较高。

fēn wéi hōng tuō de yūn rǎn gǎn hái hǎo , nóng yù dù jiào gāo .

The blurring effect used to set the mood is decent, and the intensity is quite high.

爱范儿Aug 2026

我拿一份烘焙店库存数据进行了测试。

wǒ ná yī fèn hōng bèi diàn kù cún shǔ jù jìn háng le cè shì .

I ran a test using inventory data from a bakery.

少数派Aug 2026

氛围烘托的晕染感不强,有轻度的浓郁感。

fēn wéi hōng tuō de yūn rǎn gǎn bù qiáng , yǒu qīng dù de nóng yù gǎn .

The atmospheric effect isn't very pronounced, but there is a slight sense of richness.

Tatoeba

他在火旁烘干他的湿衣服。

Tā zài huǒ páng hōnggān tā de shīyī fú.

He dried his wet clothes by the fire.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 火 (fire) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced hōng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 烘 (hōng) mean in Chinese?
烘 (hōng) primarily means "to bake." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2861 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 烘 and 恭?
烘 (hōng) and 恭 (gōng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 忄 (same 共 component).
How many strokes does 烘 have?
烘 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 烘?
The radical associated with 烘 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 烘?
烘 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 共 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火共 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 烘?
Common words with 烘 include: 烘干 (hōng gān, "to dry over a stove"); 烘烤 (hōng kǎo, "to roast"); 臭烘烘 (chòu hōng hōng, "stinking"); 烘焙 (hōng bèi, "to cure by drying over a fire (tea, meat etc)"); 烘制 (hōng zhì, "to bake"). There are over 24 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 烘 (hōng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hōng: 哄 (roar of laughter (onom.)), 红 (red), 轰 (explosion), 洪 (flood), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 烘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 烘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 烘 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.