(): to protect

() is a Chinese character meaning “to protect.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #529 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, guarding 扌 a home 户; 户 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to protect

Etymology & Origin

ideographicGuarding 扌 a home 户; 户 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰扌户 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
verbbǎo hùto protect4
nounhù shinurse4
nounjiù hù chēambulance5
nounhù zhàopassport3
verbwéi hùto defend6
verbài hùto cherish5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
biàn hùto speak in defense of
yǎn hùto screen
shǒu hùto guard
hù lǐto nurse
hù sòngto escort
fáng hùto defend
jiān hù quáncustody (of a child)
jiān hùto act as a guardian
jiān hù rénguardian
kān hùto nurse
hù wèito guard
yī hùdoctors and nurses
bì hùto shelter
jiù hùto rescue
bì hù suǒshelter
100
Total compounds
45
As first character
29
As last character
26
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 45 as the first character, 29 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.

bǎo
0.749558,972 co-occurrences
dān
0.664190,962 co-occurrences
biàn
0.62127,324 co-occurrences
yǎn
0.57821,858 co-occurrences
0.56415,234 co-occurrences
0.553214,488 co-occurrences
wéi
0.55177,574 co-occurrences
wèi
0.505192,558 co-occurrences
wén
0.503204,318 co-occurrences
wèi
0.45726,016 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

bǎohù zhǔyìHSK 5+

protectionism

noun
bǎojiàhùhángHSK 5+

to escort; to protect

phrase
huánjìng bǎohùHSK 4+

environmental protection

noun
wài jiāo bì hùHSK 7+

diplomatic asylum

phrase
yī hù rén yuánHSK 3+

medical personnel; doctors and nurses

phrase
zhèngzhì bìhùHSK 7+

political asylum

noun

Showing 6 of 7 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请佩戴好防装备,确保工作安全。

Qǐng pèidài hǎo fánghù zhuāngbèi, quèbǎo gōngzuò ānquán.

Please wear protective equipment to ensure work safety.

百度新闻Feb 2026

肥城:外卖小哥的“暖心守”升级了

féi chéng wài mài xiǎo gē de nuǎn xīn shǒu hù shēng jí le

Feicheng: takeaway brother's "warm heart guardian" upgraded

百度新闻Feb 2026

湖北文旅集团AI守岁人新春 科技赋能年味浓

hú běi wén lǚ jí tuán shǒu suì rén hù xīn chūn kē jì fù néng nián wèi nóng

Hubei Culture and Tourism Group AI year-keeper to protect the New Year Technology empowers the flavor of the year

百度新闻Feb 2026

宁远县城管局:禁燃禁放不松懈 守平安祥和年

nìng yuǎn xiàn chéng guǎn jú jīn rán jīn fàng bù sōng xiè shǒu hù píng ān xiáng hé nián

Ningyuan County Urban Management Bureau: ban on burning and discharge of no slack guarding the peace and tranquility of the year

百度新闻Feb 2026

万家灯火,90后山东小伙的萧山变电站除夕...

shǒu hù mò jiā dēng huǒ , hòu shān dōng xiǎo huǒ de xiāo shān biàn diàn zhàn chú xī . . .

Guarding the lights, 90 years after the Shandong boy's Xiaoshan substation New Year's Eve ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨送万千乡愁 奔赴团圆之路

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hù sòng mò qiān xiāng chóu bēn fù tuán yuán zhī lù

New Year walk grassroots 丨 escort thousands of nostalgia to the reunion road

Tatoeba

请让我看一下您的照好吗?

Qǐng ràng wǒ kàn yīxià nín de hùzhào hǎo ma?

May I see your passport, please?

Tatoeba

你为什么想成为士呢?

Nǐ wèishénme xiǎng chéngwéi hùshi ne?

Why do you want to be a nurse?

Tatoeba

我们怎么保自己?

Wǒmen zěnme bǎohù zìjǐ?

How will we protect ourselves?

Tatoeba

汤姆,你能帮我掩吗?

Tāngmǔ, nǐ néng bāng wǒ yǎnhù ma?

Tom, will you cover for me?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 护 (hù) mean in Chinese?
护 (hù) primarily means "to protect." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #529 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 护 have?
护 is written with 7 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 护?
The radical associated with 护 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 护?
护 is composed of: 扌 (structural), 户 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌户 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 护?
Common words with 护 include: 保护 (bǎo hù, "to protect"); 护士 (hù shi, "nurse"); 辩护 (biàn hù, "to speak in defense of"); 救护车 (jiù hù chē, "ambulance"); 掩护 (yǎn hù, "to screen"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 护 (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 护 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 护 and the traditional form is 護.

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.