(): mutual

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

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. mutual

Etymology & Origin

ideographicTwo hooks hooking eachother

Components:structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adverbhù xiāngeach other4
adverbxiāng hùeach other4
nounhù lián wǎngInternet4
verbhù dòngto interact5
verbhù zhùto help each other6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiāo hùmutual
hù huànto exchange
hù huìmutual benefit
hù lìmutually beneficial
hù bǔcomplementary
hù tōngto intercommunicate
xiāng hù zuò yòngto interact
hù ōuto fight each other
hù liáninterconnection
hù bù xiāng ràngneither giving way to the other
hù xìnmutual trust
hù liáninterconnected
hù chìmutually exclusive
hù tōng yǒu wú(idiom) mutual exchange of assistance
píng děng hù lìmutual benefit
62
Total compounds
71
As first character
3
As last character
26
As middle character

appears in 62 compound words: 71 as the first character, 3 as the last, and 26 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

xiāng
0.643309,917 co-occurrences
wǎng
0.56463,042 co-occurrences
lián
0.53474,909 co-occurrences
shū
0.4867,506 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.45256,580 co-occurrences
máo
0.4364,542 co-occurrences
niǔ
0.4367,524 co-occurrences
huàn
0.42910,320 co-occurrences
tōng
0.42360,438 co-occurrences
chì
0.4153,612 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

hù bù qīn fànHSK 7+

non-aggression

phrase
hùbùxiāngràngHSK 4+

neither one giving way to the other

phrase
hù lián wǎng zhànHSK 4+

Internet site

phrase
hùxiāng jiāndūHSK 6+

mutual supervision; to supervise each other

phrase
xiānghù zuòyòngHSK 4+

interaction

noun

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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

. . . 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

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 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

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争斗。

Shīzi wèile dédào shíwù xiānghù zhēngdòu.

The lions fought with each other to get food.

Tatoeba

最后他们相达成了协议。

Zuì hòu tāmen hùxiāng dáchéng le xiéyì.

After all they came to terms with each other.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the two radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced

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 62 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), 呼 (to call), 忽 (to neglect), 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.