(): to call, to cry, to shout

() is a Chinese character meaning “to call.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #843 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to call
  2. to cry
  3. to shout

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口乎 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
verbhū xīto breathe5
verb/nounchēng huto call6
dǎ zhāo huto greet sb by word or action4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhāo huto call out to
hū jiàoto shout
huān hūto cheer for
hū huànto call out (a name etc)
wū hūalas
hū yùto call on (sb to do sth)
gāo hūto shout loudly
hū hǎnto shout (slogans etc)
hū jiùto call for help
hū hū(onom.) sound of the wind or the breathing of sb who is sound asleep
chuán hūto notify sb of a call
hū xī qì(medicine) ventilator
rén gōng hū xīartificial respiration (medicine)
hū shēnga shout
dǎ hū luto snore
100
Total compounds
60
As first character
20
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 60 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 20 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.

0.78457,370 co-occurrences
0.64877,919 co-occurrences
0.5822,436 co-occurrences
hǎn
0.56310,314 co-occurrences
huàn
0.5294,632 co-occurrences
jiào
0.51019,278 co-occurrences
hào
0.49915,804 co-occurrences
chèn
0.46342,990 co-occurrences
zhāo
0.44912,401 co-occurrences
jié
0.4242,190 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (21)

dàhūxiǎojiàoHSK 4+

to shout aloud; to be loud and noisy

phrase
dàshēngjíhūHSK 5+

to raise a cry of warning; to loudly appeal to the public

phrase
dēng gāo yī hūHSK 4+

to make a clarion call; to make a public appeal

phrase
HūhéhàotèHSK 7+

Hohhot (a prefecture-level city, the provincial capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, China)

Hūlúnbèi'ěrHSK 7+

Hulunbuir (a prefecture-level city and former league in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, China)

hū péng yǐn bànHSK 5+

to gather one's friends; to band together

phrase
hū péng yǐn lèiHSK 5+

to call up all one's associates; rent-a-crowd

phrase
hūtiānqiāngdìHSK 5+

to cry bitterly and loudly in excessive grief

phrase
hūxī xìtǒngHSK 5+

respiratory system

noun
hūzhīyùchūHSK 6+

to be vividly portrayed; to be about to be disclosed or announced

phrase
huānhūquèyuèHSK 7+

to shout and jump for joy

phrase
réngōng hūxīHSK 4+

artificial respiration

noun

Showing 12 of 21 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请大家吁更多的人参与到环保行动中来。

Qǐng dàjiā hūyù gèng duō de rén cānyù dào huánbǎo xíngdòng zhōng lái.

Please call on more people to participate in environmental protection actions.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

六旬妇认选举期间转贴吁杯葛选举贴文 判囚2月准缓刑1年半

liù xún fù rèn xuǎn jǔ qī jiān zhuǎn tiē hū xū bēi 葛 xuǎn jǔ tiē wén pàn qiú 2 yuè zhǔn huǎn xíng 1 nián bàn

A sixty-year-old woman who posted a call for a boycott of the election during the election was sentenced to two months in prison and given a one-and-a-half year probation

NewtalkFeb 2026

北市民权大桥2人连同工程车坠河 1人无吸心跳

běi shì mín quán dà qiáo 2 rén lián tóng gōng chéng chē zhuì hé 1 rén wú hū xī xīn tiào

2 people fell into the river with an engineering vehicle on the Beimin Civil Rights Bridge, and 1 person had no breathing or heartbeat

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...机派利市给游客!台女生来港看新年烟花感动:这趟很难忘

. . . jī pài lì shì gěi yóu kè ! tái nǚ shēng lái gǎng kàn xīn nián yān huā gǎn dòng hū : zhè tāng hěn nán wàng

... Send the city to tourists! Taiwanese girls came to Hong Kong to watch the New Year's fireworks and were moved: This trip is unforgettable

百度新闻Feb 2026

安理会就利比亚局势展开磋商 中方吁和平解决政治分..

ān lǐ huì jiù lì bǐ yà jú shì zhǎn kāi cuō shāng zhōng fāng hū xū hé píng xiè jué zhèng zhì fēn . .

The Security Council held consultations on the situation in Libya, and China called for a peaceful solution to the politi...

百度新闻Feb 2026

洛杉矶奥组委主席涉爱泼斯坦案,市长吁其辞职

洛 杉 矶 ào zǔ wěi zhǔ xí shè ài pō sī tǎn àn , shì cháng hū xū qí cí zhí

Mayor calls for resignation of L.A. Olympic chairman in Epstein case.

Tatoeba

你能屏住吸多久?

Nǐ néng bīng zhù hūxī duōjiǔ?

How long can you hold your breath?

Tatoeba

你曾经用德语和那棵小桃树打过招吗?

Nǐ céngjīng yòng Déyǔ hé nà kē xiǎo táoshù dǎ guòzhāo hū ma?

Have you ever greeted the small peach tree in German?

Tatoeba

话到舌尖,之欲出

Huà dào shéjiān, hūzhīyùchū

It's on the tip of my tongue.

Tatoeba

我的鼻子没办法吸了。

Wǒ de bízi méibànfǎ hūxī le.

I can't breathe through my nose.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 呼 (hū) mean in Chinese?
呼 (hū) primarily means "to call." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #843 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 呼 have?
呼 is written with 8 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 呼?
The radical associated with 呼 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 呼?
呼 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 乎 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口乎 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 呼?
Common words with 呼 include: 呼吸 (hū xī, "to breathe"); 招呼 (zhāo hu, "to call out to"); 呼叫 (hū jiào, "to shout"); 称呼 (chēng hu, "to call"); 欢呼 (huān hū, "to cheer for"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 呼 (hū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hū: 乎 ((classical particle similar to 於|于) in), 忽 (to neglect), 胡 (non-Han people, esp. from central Asia), 壶 (pot), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 呼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 呼 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.