华 (huá): abbr. for China, Mount Hua 華山|华山 in Shaanxi, flower

华 (huá) is a Chinese character meaning “mount hua 華山|华山 in shaanxi.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 化 (phonetic) and 十 (semantic). It ranks #412 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 华 ten. Its radical form 十 (ten) appears in many related characters such as 十 (shí, ten), 午 (wǔ, 7th earthly branch: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., noon, 5th solar month (6th June-6th July), year of the Horse), 半 (bàn, half).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. abbr. for China
  2. Mount Hua 華山|华山 in Shaanxi
  3. flower

Etymology & Origin

华

pictophoneticten

Decomposition: ⿱化十 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 华

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
才华nouncái huátalent6
中华民族proper-nounzhōng huá mín zúthe Chinese nation5
中华nounzhōng huáZhonghua, historical and cultural term for China, often used to denote Chinese civilization and identity (as in 中華文化|...5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
华盛顿proper-nounhuá shèng dùnWashington (name)
豪华adjectiveháo huáluxurious
霍华德proper-nounhuò huá dé(name) Howard
爱德华proper-nounài dé huáEdward
华丽adjectivehuá lìgorgeous
华尔兹nounhuá ěr zī(loanword) waltz (dance)
华氏adjectivehuá shìFahrenheit
华尔街proper-nounhuá ěr jiēWall Street, New York
才华横溢phrasecái huá héng yìbrimming over with talent (esp. literary)
嘉年华nounjiā nián huá(loanword) carnival
奢华adjectiveshē huáluxurious
温哥华proper-nounwēn gē huáVancouver (city in Canada)
内华达nèi huá dáNevada, US state
耶和华proper-nounyē hé huáJehovah (biblical name for God, Hebrew: YHWH)
精华jīng huábest feature
112
Total compounds
54
As first character
42
As last character
4
As middle character

华 appears in 112 compound words: 54 as the first character, 42 as the last, and 4 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 华 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

共gòng
0.57498,986 co-occurrences
民mín
0.566127,534 co-occurrences
顿dùn
0.54716,558 co-occurrences
侨qiáo
0.52710,721 co-occurrences
盛shèng
0.51317,254 co-occurrences
中zhōng
0.494175,046 co-occurrences
爱ài
0.49014,810 co-occurrences
驻zhù
0.4568,914 co-occurrences
人rén
0.453131,848 co-occurrences
茨cí
0.44134 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (15)

爱德华兹ÀidéhuázīHSK 7+

a transliteration of the English surname Edwards

才华横溢cáihuáhéngyìHSK 7+

full of talent; brimming with talent

phrase
风华正茂fēnghuázhèngmàoHSK 7+

in one's prime

phrase
含英咀华hányīngjǔhuáHSK 7+

to savour the merits of a literary work; to appreciate the subtleties in a literary work by rumination

phrase
华灯初上huá dēng chū shàngHSK 5+

early evening when lanterns are first lit

phrase
华而不实huá'érbùshíHSK 5+

having a handsome exterior but hollow inside; flashy and without substance

phrase
华润万家huá rùn wàn jiāHSK 5+

CR Vanguard or China Resources Vanguard Shop, a supermarket chain in Hong Kong and mainland China

phrase
华屋丘墟huá wū qiū xūHSK 7+

magnificent building reduced to a mound of rubble (idiom); fig. all one's plans in ruins

phrase
曼珠沙华mànzhūshāhuá

red spider lily (Lycoris radiata)

noun
朴实无华pǔshíwúhuáHSK 6+

unadorned and not ostentatious; plain and not showy

phrase
清华大学qīng huá dà xuéHSK 5+

Tsinghua University, Beijing; National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

phrase
荣华富贵rónghuáfùguìHSK 5+

high social position and great financial wealth

phrase

Showing 12 of 15 idioms containing 华.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了华字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le huá zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "华" in the dictionary.

RfiFeb 2026

默茨访华前警告不要抱有“幻想”

mò 茨 fǎng huá qián jǐng gào bù yāo bào yǒu huàn xiǎng

Mertz warned against "illusions" before visiting China

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...裁决不影响中美贸易协议 也不影响特朗普访华

. . . cái jué bù yǐng xiǎng zhōng měi mào yì xié yì yě bù yǐng xiǎng tè lǎng pǔ fǎng huá

... The ruling does not affect the Sino-US trade agreement or Trump's visit to China

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

川普关税被判违法...南华早报:3月川习会 华府筹码更少了

chuān pǔ guān shuì bèi pàn wéi fǎ . . . nán huá zǎo bào : 3 yuè chuān xí huì huá fǔ chóu mǎ gēng shǎo le

Trump tariffs found illegal... South China Morning Post: The Sichuan-Xi meeting in March Washington has fewer chips

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层·新华鲜报|“Becoming Chin..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng xīn huá xiān bào B e c o m i n g C h i n . .

New Year to the grassroots Xinhua Fresh News|" Becoming Chin..

Tatoeba

美国的首都是华盛顿还是纽约?

Měiguó de shǒudū shì Huáshèngdùn háishi Niǔyuē?

Which is the capital of the United States, Washington or New York?

Tatoeba

华沙比伦敦便宜吗?

Huáshā bǐ Lúndūn piányi ma?

Is Warsaw cheaper than London?

Tatoeba

你们可以乘火车从华盛顿去纽约。

Nǐmen kěyǐ chéng huǒchē cóng Huáshèngdùn qù Niǔyuē.

You can get from Washington to New York by train.

Tatoeba

水在华氏32度结成冰。

Shuǐ zài Huá shì 32 dù jiéchéng bīng.

Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tatoeba

我想跟约翰华纳讲话。

Wǒ xiǎng gēn Yuēhàn huā nà jiǎnghuà.

I'd like to speak to John Warner.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 十 (ten) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced huá

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 华 (huá) mean in Chinese?
华 (huá) primarily means "mount hua 華山|华山 in shaanxi." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #412 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 华 and 货?
华 (huá) and 货 (huò) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 十 vs 贝 (same 化 component).
How many strokes does 华 have?
华 is written with 6 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 华?
The radical associated with 华 is 十 (ten). This radical appears in many characters related to ten.
What are the components of 华?
华 is composed of: 化 (phonetic), 十 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱化十 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 华?
Common words with 华 include: 华盛顿 (huá shèng dùn, "Washington (name)"); 豪华 (háo huá, "luxurious"); 才华 (cái huá, "talent"); 霍华德 (huò huá dé, "(name) Howard"); 爱德华 (ài dé huá, "Edward"). There are over 112 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 华 (huá)?
Several characters share the pronunciation huá: 话 (speech, words), 化 (to make into), 花 (flower), 划 (to row), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 华 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 华 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 华 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.