(huà): to draw, painting

(huà) is a Chinese character meaning “to draw, painting.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #883 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a painting on an easel; compare 畫, which includes the brush. Its radical form (field) appears in many related characters such as (diàn, lightning), (nán, male), (yóu, to follow).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to draw, painting

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA painting on an easel; compare 畫, which includes the brush

Decomposition: ⿱一⿶凵田 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
nounmàn huàcaricature6
nounhuà miànscene5
nounhuà jiāpainter3
verbhuì huàto draw6
dòng huàanimation5
nountú huàdrawing5
nounshū huàpainting and calligraphy6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
huà lángart gallery
huà huàto draw
huà xiàngportrait
dòng huà piànanimated film
yóu huàoil painting
huà zuòpainting
bì huàmural (painting)
huà bùcanvas (artist's painting surface)
zuò huàto draw
huà shī(art) painter
màn huà jiācartoon writer (from Japanese mangaka)
huà bàoillustrated magazine
huà zhǎnart exhibition
lián huán huàlianhuanhua (graphic novel)
míng huàfamous painting
100
Total compounds
35
As first character
54
As last character
11
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 35 as the first character, 54 as the last, and 11 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.

miào
0.70594 co-occurrences
0.69587 co-occurrences
huì
0.66849,884 co-occurrences
gòu
0.66196 co-occurrences
màn
0.65796,870 co-occurrences
qiǎo
0.64594 co-occurrences
zhǎng
0.63787 co-occurrences
0.63687 co-occurrences
0.61296 co-occurrences
shùn
0.59388 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

diāo liáng huà dòngHSK 7+

richly ornamented (building)

phrase
huàbǐngchōngjīHSK 6+

to feed on illusions; (of something attractive-looking) to be of no actual use; like a pie in the sky

phrase
huàdìzìxiànHSK 5+

drawing boundaries for oneself; self-limiting

phrase
huàhǔlèiquǎnHSK 7+

short for 畫虎不成反類犬/画虎不成反类犬 (huà hǔ bùchéng fǎn lèi quǎn)

phrase
huàlóngdiǎnjīngHSK 5+

something one step away from perfection; to put on the finishing touches

phrase
huàshétiānzúHSK 6+

to improve something unnecessarily; to gild the lily

phrase
qínqíshūhuàHSK 6+

the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar (i.e. qin, go, calligraphy, and painting)

noun
shīqínghuàyìHSK 5+

picturesque or poetic charm

phrase
tòu shì huà fǎHSK 6+

perspective drawing

phrase
zhàomāohuàhǔHSK 4+

to copy or imitate slavishly without attempt at originality

phrase

Showing 10 of 11 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这幅是著名家的作品,价值连城。

Zhè fú huà shì zhùmíng huàjiā de zuòpǐn, jiàzhí liánchéng.

This painting is the work of a famous artist and is extremely valuable.

百度新闻Feb 2026

年味上墙!静安这幅“邻里新卷”,让老小区变成了“..

nián wèi shàng qiáng ! jìng ān zhè fú lín lǐ xīn huà juǎn , ràng lǎo xiǎo qū biàn chéng le . .

New Year's flavor on the wall! Jing'an's "new picture of the neighborhood" has turned the old community into a ":

百度新闻Feb 2026

寻马记|能看到86匹灵动骏马的北齐壁博物馆

xún mǎ jì néng kàn dào 8 6 pǐ líng dòng jùn mǎ de běi qí bì huà bó wù guǎn

The Northern Qi Mural Museum where you can see 86 smart horses

百度新闻Feb 2026

...州烟火气·黔味中国年丨览林城山色,赏乌江廊,赴..

. . . zhōu yān huǒ qì 黔 wèi zhōng guó nián 丨 lǎn lín chéng shān sè , shǎng wū jiāng huà láng , fù . .

... The Chinese New Year in Qianqian - A Taste of China

百度新闻Feb 2026

文物日历|2月18日·雨水:井饮图壁

wén wù rì lì yuè rì yǔ shuǐ jǐng yǐn tú bì huà zhuān

Cultural Heritage Calendar | February 18 · Rain Water: Well Drinking Scene Mural Brick

百度新闻Feb 2026

...律宾海警在南海投放不明物体被抓现行,监控面公布

. . . lǜ bīn hǎi jǐng zài nán hǎi tóu fàng bù míng wù tī bèi zhuā xiàn háng , jiān kòng huà miàn gōng bù

Philippine Coast Guard caught red-handed deploying unidentified objects in South China Sea; surveillance footage released

Tatoeba

那幅有多少年了?

Nà fú huà yǒu duōshao nián le?

How old is that painting?

Tatoeba

你知道这张是谁的吗?

Nǐ zhīdào zhè zhāng huà shì shéi huà de ma?

Do you know who painted this picture?

Tatoeba

你是个很棒的家,不是吗?

Nǐ shì gè hěn bàng de huàjiā, bùshìma?

You're a good painter, aren't you?

Tatoeba

你认识里面的男孩吗?

Nǐ rènshi huà lǐmiàn de nánhái ma?

Do you know the boy in the picture?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced huà

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 画 (huà) mean in Chinese?
画 (huà) primarily means "to draw, painting." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #883 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 画 have?
画 is written with 8 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 画?
The radical associated with 画 is 田 (field). This radical appears in many characters related to field.
What are the components of 画?
画 is composed of: 一 (structural), undefined (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱一⿶凵田 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 画?
Common words with 画 include: 漫画 (màn huà, "caricature"); 画面 (huà miàn, "scene"); 画家 (huà jiā, "painter"); 画廊 (huà láng, "art gallery"); 画画 (huà huà, "to draw"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 画 (huà)?
Several characters share the pronunciation huà: 花 (flower), 哗 ((onom.) bang), 华 (abbr. for China), 滑 (to slip), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 画 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 画 and the traditional form is 畫.

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.