唬 (hǔ): a tiger's roar, to scare, to intimidate

唬 (hǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “a tiger's roar.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 虎 (phonetic). It ranks #2830 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. a tiger's roar
  2. to scare
  3. to intimidate

Etymology & Origin

唬

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口虎 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
吓唬verbxià huto scare
唬人hǔ rénto scare people
诈唬verbzhà huto bluff
唬弄hǔ nòngto fool
唬烂hǔ làn(slang) (Tw) to bullshit
5
Total compounds
60
As first character
40
As last character
0
As middle character

唬 appears in 5 compound words: 60 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 0 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 唬 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

吓xià
0.639247 co-occurrences
叭bā
0.45516 co-occurrences
弄nòng
0.45056 co-occurrences
喇lǎ
0.38716 co-occurrences
孩hái
0.34538 co-occurrences
船chuán
0.31436 co-occurrences
敌dí
0.31112 co-occurrences
旨zhǐ
0.30110 co-occurrences
想xiǎng
0.26831 co-occurrences
我wǒ
0.24749 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈唬嘱我要按时吃饭,注意身体健康。

mā mā hǔ zhǔ wǒ yāo àn shí chī fàn , zhù yì shēn tī jiàn kāng .

Mom reminded me to eat on time and take care of my health.

少数派Aug 2026

这套偷懒的搭建看着唬人,实际从观感上和聆听体验上都不尽如人意。

zhè tào tōu lǎn de dā jiàn kàn zhe hǔ rén , shí jì cóng guàn gǎn shàng hé líng tīng tǐ yàn shàng dōu bù jǐn rú rén yì .

This "lazy" setup may look impressive, but in reality, it falls short in both visual appeal and sound quality.

少数派Jun 2026

但要我说,有很多情况单纯是因为展示出来的数据比较唬人罢了。

dàn yāo wǒ shuō , yǒu hěn duō qíng kuàng dān chún shì yīn wéi zhǎn shì chū lái de shǔ jù bǐ jiào hǔ rén bà le .

But if you ask me, in many cases, it’s simply because the data being presented is quite intimidating.

爱范儿Jun 2026

至于视频里用来吓唬老司机的定责逻辑,在真正的交通事故处理中更是说不通。

zhì yú shì pín lǐ yòng lái hè hǔ lǎo sī jī de dìng zé luó jí , zài zhēn zhèng de jiāo tōng shì gù chǔ lǐ zhōng gēng shì shuō bù tōng .

As for the logic used in the video to scare experienced drivers—the logic behind assigning fault—it makes even less sense in the actual handling of traffic accidents.

少数派May 2026

人工智能唬得住外行的这种表现,放在翻译上,乃至各种工作中,都是挺可怕的。

rén gōng zhì néng hǔ dé zhù wài háng de zhè zhǒng biǎo xiàn , fàng zài fān yì shàng , nǎi zhì gè zhǒng gōng zuò zhōng , dōu shì tǐng kě pà de .

The fact that artificial intelligence can fool laypeople in this way is quite alarming when it comes to translation—and indeed, in all kinds of work.

Tatoeba

我没想吓唬汤姆的。

Wǒ méi xiǎng xiàhu Tāngmǔ de.

I didn't mean to scare Tom.

Tatoeba

我不是故意吓唬你的。

Wǒ bù shì gùyì xiàhu nǐ de.

I didn't mean to spook you.

Tatoeba

卡尔没想吓唬阿米利亚的。

Kǎ'ěr méi xiǎng xiàhu ā mǐ lì yà de.

Karl didn't mean to scare Amelia.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced hǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 唬 (hǔ) mean in Chinese?
唬 (hǔ) primarily means "a tiger's roar." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2830 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 唬 have?
唬 is written with 11 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 唬?
The radical associated with 唬 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 唬?
唬 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 虎 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口虎 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 唬?
Common words with 唬 include: 吓唬 (xià hu, "to scare"); 唬人 (hǔ rén, "to scare people"); 诈唬 (zhà hu, "to bluff"); 唬弄 (hǔ nòng, "to fool"); 唬烂 (hǔ làn, "(slang) (Tw) to bullshit"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 唬 (hǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hǔ: 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 唬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 唬 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 唬 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.