瑚 (hú): used in 珊瑚

瑚 (hú) is a Chinese character meaning “used in 珊瑚.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 王 (semantic) and 胡 (phonetic). It ranks #3514 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 瑚 jade. Its radical form 王 (jade) appears in many related characters such as 现 (xiàn, to appear), 球 (qiú, ball used for playing games (variant of 球)), 环 (huán, ring).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 王 jade13 strokesFrequency #3514王 semantic胡 phonetic

Definitions

  1. used in 珊瑚

Etymology & Origin

瑚

pictophoneticjade

Decomposition: ⿰王胡 (layout: left-right)

Components:王semantic胡phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
珊瑚nounshān húcoral
珊瑚礁nounshān hú jiāocoral reef
红珊瑚hóng shān húred coral
草珊瑚nouncǎo shān húSarcandra glabra (botany)
贵珊瑚guì shān húprecious coral
5
Total compounds
0
As first character
80
As last character
20
As middle character

瑚 appears in 5 compound words: 0 as the first character, 80 as the last, and 20 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

少数派Oct 2026

这种珊瑚橙在大多数灯光下都有点三文鱼的感觉，并不会特别扎眼但还是足够鲜艳的。

zhè zhǒng shān hú chéng zài dà duō shǔ dēng guāng xià dōu yǒu diǎn sān wén yú de gǎn jué , bìng bù huì tè bié zhā yǎn dàn hái shì zú gòu xiān yàn de .

Under most lighting conditions, this coral-orange shade has a slightly salmon-like quality—it isn't particularly glaring, but it's still vibrant enough.

IT之家Sep 2026

倍思给它的防护方案找了个很巧妙的参考：气泡珊瑚。

bèi sī gěi tā de fáng hù fāng àn zhǎo le gè hěn qiǎo miào de cān kǎo : qì pào shān hú .

Baseus found a very ingenious inspiration for its protective solution: bubble coral.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 王 (jade) component

理lǐ球qiú环huán玩wán玛mǎ珍zhēn瑞ruì琳lín珠zhū珊shān

Related Characters

现xiàn球qiú环huán理lǐ珍zhēn班bān玉yù玩wán王wáng玻bō

Homophones — Characters pronounced hú

湖hú糊hú葫hú蝴hú

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瑚 (hú) mean in Chinese?
瑚 (hú) primarily means "used in 珊瑚." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3514 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 瑚 have?
瑚 is written with 13 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 瑚?
The radical associated with 瑚 is 王 (jade). This radical appears in many characters related to jade.
What are the components of 瑚?
瑚 is composed of: 王 (semantic), 胡 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰王胡 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瑚?
Common words with 瑚 include: 珊瑚 (shān hú, "coral"); 珊瑚礁 (shān hú jiāo, "coral reef"); 红珊瑚 (hóng shān hú, "red coral"); 草珊瑚 (cǎo shān hú, "Sarcandra glabra (botany)"); 贵珊瑚 (guì shān hú, "precious coral"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瑚 (hú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hú: 湖 (lake), 糊 (to paste), 葫 (used in 葫蘆|葫芦), 蝴 (butterfly (in 蝴蝶)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 瑚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瑚 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 瑚 with real-time feedback

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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.