互 (hù): mutual

互 (hù) is a Chinese character meaning “mutual.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 二 (structural). It ranks #819 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 互 two hooks hooking eachother. Its radical form 二 (two) appears in many related characters such as 二 (èr, two), 五 (wǔ, five), 些 (xiē, classifier indicating a small amount or small number greater than 1: some, a few, several).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. mutual

Etymology & Origin

互

ideographicTwo hooks hooking eachother

Components:二structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 互

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
互相adverbhù xiāngeach other4
相互adverbxiāng hùeach other4
互联网nounhù lián wǎngInternet4
互动verbhù dòngto interact5
互助verbhù zhùto help each other6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
交互adverbjiāo hùmutual
互换verbhù huànto exchange
互惠verbhù huìmutual benefit
互利verbhù lìmutually beneficial
互补verbhù bǔcomplementary
互通verbhù tōngto intercommunicate
相互作用nounxiāng hù zuò yòngto interact
互殴nounhù ōuto fight each other
互连hù liáninterconnection
互不相让phrasehù bù xiāng ràngneither giving way to the other
互信verbhù xìnmutual trust
互联verbhù liáninterconnected
互斥verbhù chìmutually exclusive
互通有无hù tōng yǒu wú(idiom) mutual exchange of assistance
平等互利píng děng hù lìmutual benefit
64
Total compounds
72
As first character
3
As last character
25
As middle character

互 appears in 64 compound words: 72 as the first character, 3 as the last, and 25 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 互 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

网wǎng
0.55621,014 co-occurrences
相xiāng
0.554103,354 co-occurrences
联lián
0.53324,966 co-occurrences
枢shū
0.4792,502 co-occurrences
交jiāo
0.44518,860 co-occurrences
矛máo
0.4301,514 co-occurrences
纽niǔ
0.4302,508 co-occurrences
换huàn
0.4233,440 co-occurrences
铝lǚ
0.41810 co-occurrences
通tōng
0.41720,146 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

互不侵犯hù bù qīn fànHSK 7+

non-aggression

phrase
互不相让hùbùxiāngràngHSK 4+

neither one giving way to the other

phrase
互联网站hù lián wǎng zhànHSK 4+

Internet site

phrase
互相监督hùxiāng jiāndūHSK 6+

mutual supervision; to supervise each other

phrase
相互作用xiānghù zuòyòngHSK 4+

interaction

noun

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing 互.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

互相帮助是中华民族的传统美德。

Hùxiāng bāngzhù shì Zhōnghuá mínzú de chuántǒng měidé.

Helping each other is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation.

LtnFeb 2026

...黄子佼半年!孟耿如近况曝光 周丹薇泄私下互动

. . . huáng zǐ 佼 bàn nián ! mèng gěng rú jìn kuàng pù guāng zhōu dān 薇 xiè sī xià hù dòng

... Huang Zijiao half a year! Meng Gengru's recent situation was exposed, and Zhou Danwei leaked private interactions

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

竹县团拜 陈见贤、徐欣莹零互动

zhú xiàn tuán bài chén jiàn xián , xú xīn yíng líng hù dòng

Zhuxian group worship Chen Jianxian and Xu Xinying have zero interaction

EttodayFeb 2026

全台首座! 桃园灯会13米机械飞马 科技互动新体验

quán tái shǒu zuò ! táo yuán dēng huì 1 3 mǐ jī xiè fēi mǎ kē jì hù dòng xīn tǐ yàn

The first in Taiwan! Taoyuan Lantern Festival 13-meter mechanical Pegasus new experience of technology interaction

百度新闻Feb 2026

马年首日上海科技馆试开放 互动展项人气最旺

mǎ nián shǒu rì shǎng hǎi kē jì guǎn shì kāi fàng hù dòng zhǎn xiàng rén qì zuì wàng

The first day of the Year of the Horse, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum trial opening interactive exhibits most popular

百度新闻Feb 2026

豆包除夕AI互动19亿次

dòu bāo chú xī hù dòng yì cì

Doubao's Lunar New Year Eve AI Interaction Hits 1.9 Billion Times

Tatoeba

他们互帮互助,把校庆搞得很成功。

Tāmen hùbāng hùzhù, bǎ xiàoqìng gǎo de hěn chénggōng.

They helped one another to make the school festival a success.

Tatoeba

互联网是一种无法估量的信息资源。

Hùliánwǎng shì yīzhǒng wúfǎ gūliang de xìnxī zīyuán.

The Internet is an invaluable source of information.

Tatoeba

狮子为了得到食物相互争斗。

Shīzi wèile dédào shíwù xiānghù zhēngdòu.

The lions fought with each other to get food.

Tatoeba

最后他们互相达成了协议。

Zuì hòu tāmen hùxiāng dáchéng le xiéyì.

After all they came to terms with each other.

Character Family

二 Radical Family — Characters sharing the two radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced hù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 互 (hù) mean in Chinese?
互 (hù) primarily means "mutual." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #819 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 互 have?
互 is written with 4 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 互?
The radical associated with 互 is 二 (two). This radical appears in many characters related to two.
What are the components of 互?
互 is composed of: 二 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 互?
Common words with 互 include: 互相 (hù xiāng, "each other"); 相互 (xiāng hù, "each other"); 互联网 (hù lián wǎng, "Internet"); 互动 (hù dòng, "to interact"); 互助 (hù zhù, "to help each other"). There are over 64 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 互 (hù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hù: 乎 ((classical particle similar to 於|于) in), 护 (to protect), 呼 (to call), 胡 (non-Han people, esp. from central Asia), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 互 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 互 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 互 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.