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).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 火 fire10 strokesFrequency #2861火 semantic共 phonetic

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)

Components:火semantic共phonetic

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hōng gānto dry over a stove
烘烤hōng kǎoto roast
臭烘烘chòu hōng hōngstinking
烘焙hōng bèito cure by drying over a fire (tea, meat etc)
烘制hōng zhìto bake
烘托hōng tuōbackground (of a painting)
暖烘烘nuǎn hōng hōngnice and warm
烘炉hōng lúoven
烘手机hōng shǒu jīhand dryer
烘干机hōng 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[hong1 dong4]
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
0.8858,766 co-occurrences
烤kǎo
0.7134,884 co-occurrences
干gān
0.4521,770 co-occurrences
炉lú
0.444276 co-occurrences
培péi
0.4431,212 co-occurrences
坊fāng
0.438780 co-occurrences
啡fēi
0.438474 co-occurrences
糕gāo
0.437342 co-occurrences
咖kā
0.433486 co-occurrences
揉róu
0.41766 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.

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

火 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fire radical

煲bāo焙bèi灿càn炒chǎo炊chuī灯dēng炖dùn烦fán耿gěng焊hàn

Related Characters

火huǒ灯dēng烟yān烦fán炼liàn烧shāo燃rán灰huī灾zāi烂làn

Homophones — Characters pronounced hōng

哄hōng轰hōng弘hóng红hóng宏hóng洪hóng虹hóng

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 粪?
烘 (hōng) and 粪 (fèn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 米 (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.)), 轰 (explosion), 弘 (great), 红 (red), and 3 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 native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.