(): non-Han people, esp. from central Asia, reckless, outrageous

() is a Chinese character meaning “non-han people, esp. from central asia.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #806 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, meat. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. non-Han people, esp. from central Asia
  2. reckless
  3. outrageous

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmeat

Decomposition: ⿰古⺼ (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
nounhú zibeard6
nounhú tònglane5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hú shuōto talk nonsense
hú chěto chatter
hú luó bocarrot
hú nàoto act willfully and make a scene
hú huànonsense
hú jiāopepper
hú luàncareless
hú xūbeard
hú láito act arbitrarily regardless of the rules
hú táowalnut
hú ānJuan (Spanish given name)
hú jiāo fěnground pepper (i.e. powder)
hú biānto make things up
hú tú zúHutu, an ethnic group in Rwanda and Burundi
hú fóHoover (name)
100
Total compounds
78
As first character
15
As last character
7
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 78 as the first character, 15 as the last, and 7 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.

jiāo
0.61314,221 co-occurrences
tāo
0.5075,808 co-occurrences
luó
0.5032,835 co-occurrences
耀yào
0.47811,154 co-occurrences
fēng
0.4454,650 co-occurrences
táo
0.4358,994 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.4195,238 co-occurrences
zhì
0.39819,614 co-occurrences
yōng
0.3931,944 co-occurrences
yǒng
0.392906 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (14)

bā zì hú xūHSK 5+

mustache shaped like character 八

phrase
húbiānluànzàoHSK 6+

to fabricate (stories, etc.); to cook up

phrase
hú chě bā liūHSK 7+

to talk nonsense

phrase
húchīhǎisāiHSK 6+

to recklessly stuff oneself with food; gluttony

phrase
húluóbosùHSK 7+

carotene

noun
hútáojiāziHSK 6+

nutcracker

noun
hú tiān hú dìHSK 6+

with all the majesty of an emperor (idiom); reckless; intemperate

phrase
Hú Zhìmíng ShìHSK 5+

Ho Chi Minh City (a city in Vietnam)

huālihúshàoHSK 7+

showy; gaudy; garish

phrase
mǎn kǒu hú cháiHSK 6+

to spout nonsense; to bullshit endlessly

phrase
hú zhōu bā chěHSK 7+

to talk random nonsense (idiom); to say whatever comes into one's head

phrase
hú zhōu luàn chěHSK 7+

to talk nonsense (idiom); saying whatever comes into his head

phrase

Showing 12 of 14 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由11笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

hú zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "Hu" consists of 11 strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

StheadlineFeb 2026

...朗局势—美国以色列联手发动空袭 内塔尼亚:目标推翻政权—不断更新

. . . lǎng jú shì — měi guó yǐ sè liè lián shǒu fā dòng kōng xí nèi tǎ ní yà hú : mù biāo tuī fān zhèng quán — bù duàn gēng xīn

... Lang situation - the United States and Israel join forces to launch airstrikes Netanyahu: Goal to overthrow the regime - constantly updated

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

·说楼市|财政预算案2026: 地价收入...

hú shuō lóu shì cái zhèng yù suàn àn 2 0 2 6 : dì jià shōu rù . . .

Hu said that the property market|Budget 2026: Land price income...

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

【重播】内塔尼亚与莫迪会晤后发表讲话

chóng bō nèi tǎ ní yà hú yǔ mò dí huì wù hòu fā biǎo jiǎng huà

Netanyahu delivered a speech after meeting with Modi

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

内塔尼亚宣布组建针对穆斯林的新联盟

nèi tǎ ní yà hú xuān bù zǔ jiàn zhēn duì mù sī lín de xīn lián méng

Netanyahu announced the formation of a new coalition against Muslims

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

年初八拜天公是否可燃放爆竹 栋强促倪可敏交代

nián chū bā bài tiān gōng shì fǒu kě rán fàng bào zhú hú dòng qiáng cù 倪 kě mǐn jiāo dài

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, whether it is possible to set off firecrackers Hu Dong forced Ni Kemin to explain

Tatoeba

汤姆不喜欢萝卜。

Tāngmǔ bù xǐhuan húluóbo.

Tom doesn't like carrots.

Tatoeba

萝卜放在锅里。

Bǎ húluóbo fàng zài guō lǐ.

Put the carrots in the pot.

Tatoeba

请把盐和椒粉拿给我。

Qǐng bǎ yán hé hújiāofěn ná gěi wǒ.

Pass me the salt and pepper, please.

Tatoeba

蘿蔔可以治夜盲症。

Chī húluóbo kěyǐ zhì yèmángzhèng.

Eating carrots can help cure night blindness.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 胡 (hú) mean in Chinese?
胡 (hú) primarily means "non-han people, esp. from central asia." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #806 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 胡 and 苦?
胡 (hú) and 苦 (kǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 艹 (same 古 component).
How many strokes does 胡 have?
胡 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 胡?
The radical associated with 胡 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 胡?
胡 is composed of: 古 (phonetic), ⺼ (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰古⺼ with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 胡?
Common words with 胡 include: 胡说 (hú shuō, "to talk nonsense"); 胡子 (hú zi, "beard"); 胡扯 (hú chě, "to chatter"); 胡萝卜 (hú luó bo, "carrot"); 胡闹 (hú nào, "to act willfully and make a scene"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 胡 (hú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hú: 乎 ((classical particle similar to 於|于) in), 呼 (to call). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 胡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 胡 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.