(huài): bad, broken

(huài) is a Chinese character meaning “bad, broken.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #832 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, earth. Its radical form (earth) appears in many related characters such as (zài, to exist), (, earth, ground), (chǎng, field, place).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bad, broken

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿰土不 (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
verbpò huàidestruction5
verbsǔn huàito damage6
nounhuài chuharm4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
huài rénbad person
huài shìbad thing
xià huàito be terrified
huài dànbad egg
huài huàunpleasant talk
huǐ huàito damage
hǎo huàigood or bad
chǒng huàito spoil (a child etc)
bài huàito ruin
huài sǐnecrosis
西huài dōng xibastard
pò huài xìngdestructive
使shǐ huàito play dirty tricks
qì jí bài huàiflustered and exasperated
huài jūgangrene
70
Total compounds
33
As first character
47
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 70 compound words: 33 as the first character, 47 as the last, and 20 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.

0.771144,618 co-occurrences
sǔn
0.64626,975 co-occurrences
yán
0.57619,056 co-occurrences
huǐ
0.55612,838 co-occurrences
0.467953 co-occurrences
bēng
0.4623,350 co-occurrences
zāo
0.46111,166 co-occurrences
0.419684 co-occurrences
chóng
0.41322,500 co-occurrences
bài
0.3872,952 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

lǐbēngyuèhuàiHSK 7+

feudal system collapses and rites and music deteriorate; social order collapses and morals deteriorate

phrase
lǐ huài yuè bēngHSK 7+

see 禮崩樂壞|礼崩乐坏[li3 beng1 yue4 huai4]

phrase
lǐ yuè bēng huàiHSK 7+

see 禮崩樂壞|礼崩乐坏[li3 beng1 yue4 huai4]

phrase
qìjíbàihuàiHSK 4+

furious and exasperated

phrase
shān tuí mù huàiHSK 7+

lit. the mountains crumble and the trees lie ruined; a great sage has died (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这台电脑了,需要送去维修,可能要花不少钱。

Zhè tái diànnǎo huài le, xūyào sòng qù wéixiū, kěnéng yào huā bù shǎo qián.

This computer is broken and needs to be sent for repair; it may cost quite a bit.

99 健康网Feb 2026

穿戴震动棒晚上一直穿会吗?这些使用注意事项要了解

chuān dài zhèn dòng bàng wǎn shàng yī zhí chuān huì huài ma ? zhè xiē shǐ yòng zhù yì shì xiàng yāo le jiě

Will wearing a vibrator all night damage it? Here are some usage precautions you should know.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

钟柔美陷“A0”风波网民批人设崩欠公信力 詹天文11字吐真言

zhōng róu měi xiàn A 0 fēng bō wǎng mín pī rén shè bēng huài qiàn gōng xìn lì 詹 tiān wén 1 1 zì tǔ zhēn yán

Zhong Roumei was trapped in the "A0" turmoil, netizens criticized the collapse of the character design and lacked credibility, and Zhan Tianwen spoke the truth in 11 words

Hk01.comFeb 2026

蔡瑞雪清纯校花形象大崩?橙发低胸辣照疯传 网:差点认不出来

蔡 ruì xuě qīng chún jiào huā xíng xiàng dà bēng huài ? chéng fā dī xiōng là zhào fēng chuán wǎng : chā diǎn rèn bù chū lái

Cai Ruixue's image of a pure school flower collapsed? Orange-haired low-cut spicy photos went viral on the Internet: I almost couldn't recognize it

NewsFeb 2026

移植心脏运送遭干冰冻 男童苦撑2月亡

yí zhí xīn zāng yùn sòng zāo gān bīng dòng huài nán tóng kǔ chēng yuè wáng

Transplanted Heart Damaged by Dry Ice During Transport; Boy Survives Two Months Before Passing Away

百度新闻Feb 2026

未必是事!南马降级成精英标 马拉松将回归体验本...

wèi bì shì huài shì ! nán mǎ jiàng jí chéng jīng yīng biāo mǎ lā sōng jiāng huí guī tǐ yàn běn . . .

Not necessarily a bad thing! Southern Marathon downgraded to elite status, returning to its experiential roots...

Tatoeba

你知道分辨好吗?

Nǐ zhīdào fēnbiàn hǎohuài ma?

Do you know the difference between good and bad?

Tatoeba

又再说妈妈的话了喔?

Yòu zàishuō māma de huàihuà le ō?

Talking bad about mother again, eh?

Tatoeba

的情境是什么?

Zuì huài de qíngjìng shì shénme?

What's the worst-case scenario?

Tatoeba

你摔过你的眼镜吗?

Nǐ shuāihuài guo nǐ de yǎnjìng ma?

Have you ever broken your glasses?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced huài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 坏 (huài) mean in Chinese?
坏 (huài) primarily means "bad, broken." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #832 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 坏 and 好?
坏 (huài) and 好 (hǎo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 坏 (bad) vs 好 (good).
How many strokes does 坏 have?
坏 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 坏?
The radical associated with 坏 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.
What are the components of 坏?
坏 is composed of: 土 (semantic), 不 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰土不 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 坏?
Common words with 坏 include: 破坏 (pò huài, "destruction"); 坏人 (huài rén, "bad person"); 坏事 (huài shì, "bad thing"); 吓坏 (xià huài, "to be terrified"); 坏蛋 (huài dàn, "bad egg"). There are over 70 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 坏 (huài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation huài: 怀 (bosom), 徊 (used in 徘徊), 淮 (name of a river), 槐 (Chinese scholar tree (Sophora japonica)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 坏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 坏 and the traditional form is 壞.

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.