挥 (huī): to wave, to brandish, to command

挥 (huī) is a Chinese character meaning “to wave.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (structural) and 军 (structural). It ranks #742 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 挥 to direct an army 军 by hand 扌. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to wave
  2. to brandish
  3. to command

Etymology & Origin

挥

ideographicTo direct an army 军 by hand 扌

Decomposition: ⿰扌军 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 挥

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
指挥verb/nounzhǐ huīto conduct6
发挥verbfā huīto display5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
指挥官nounzhǐ huī guāncommander
挥手verbhuī shǒuto wave (one's hand)
指挥部nounzhǐ huī bùheadquarters
挥舞verbhuī wǔto brandish
挥霍verbhuī huòto squander money
挥动verbhuī dòngto wave sth
挥洒verbhuī sǎto sprinkle
指挥家nounzhǐ huī jiā(music) conductor
挥发verbhuī fāto volatilize
挥发性nounhuī fā xìngvolatility
挥金如土phrasehuī jīn rú tǔlit. to squander money like dirt (idiom)
指挥棒nounzhǐ huī bàngbaton
挥泪verbhuī lèito shed tears
挥汗如雨phrasehuī hàn rú yǔto drip with sweat
借题发挥phrasejiè tí fā huīto use the current topic to put over one's own ideas
45
Total compounds
60
As first character
13
As last character
27
As middle character

挥 appears in 45 compound words: 60 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 27 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 挥 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

指zhǐ
0.746110,458 co-occurrences
官guān
0.49818,040 co-occurrences
发fā
0.48721,624 co-occurrences
削xiāo
0.45610 co-occurrences
总zǒng
0.4448,890 co-occurrences
军jūn
0.43512,194 co-occurrences
弱ruò
0.40311 co-occurrences
队duì
0.3975,848 co-occurrences
阵zhèn
0.39412 co-occurrences
键jiàn
0.391768 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

挥汗成雨huī hàn chéng yǔHSK 5+

to drip with sweat; sweat poured off (him)

phrase
挥汗如雨huīhànrúyǔHSK 5+

to sweat buckets; to sweat profusely

phrase
挥霍无度huīhuòwúdùHSK 7+

to spend money (and squander) freely and extravagantly

phrase
挥金如土huījīnrútǔHSK 5+

to spend money like water; to spend money extravagantly

phrase
挥洒自如huīsǎzìrúHSK 5+

to write or paint without constraint; to be skilful in writing, calligraphy, or painting

phrase
挥之不去huīzhībùqùHSK 5+

to linger and bother someone constantly, while being impossible to be got rid of

phrase
借题发挥jiètífāhuīHSK 5+

to seize on an incident to express one's own ideas

phrase
一挥而就yīhuī'érjiùHSK 5+

a flourish of the pen and it's done; to finish a piece of writing or a painting at one go

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他向大家挥手告别,然后登上了火车。

Tā xiàng dàjiā huī shǒu gàobié, ránhòu dēng shàng le huǒchē.

He waved goodbye to everyone and then boarded the train.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

中国35岁指挥家李疏瞳纽约车祸逝世 所在乐团以演奏中国...

zhōng guó 3 5 suì zhǐ huī jiā lǐ shū 瞳 niǔ yuē chē huò shì shì suǒ zài lè tuán yǐ yǎn zòu zhōng guó . . .

China's 35-year-old conductor Li Shutong died in a car accident in New York, and his orchestra played in China...

EttodayFeb 2026

好消息!龙恩手肘伤势好转已开始挥棒 仍有望出战经典赛

hǎo xiāo xī ! lóng ēn shǒu 肘 shāng shì hǎo zhuǎn yǐ kāi shǐ huī bàng réng yǒu wàng chū zhàn jīng diǎn sài

Good news! Longen's elbow injury has improved and he has begun to swing the bat and is still expected to play in the classics

中国军网Feb 2026

挑灯看剑丨用AI赋能指挥信息系统

tiāo dēng kàn jiàn 丨 yòng fù néng zhǐ huī xìn xī xì tǒng

Sword in Hand by Lamp Light丨Empowering Command Information Systems with AI

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

...表示,习近平对中国军队的清洗行动会削弱指挥能力和战备水平-FX168

. . . biǎo shì , xí jìn píng duì zhōng guó jūn duì de qīng xǐ háng dòng huì xiāo ruò zhǐ huī néng lì hé zhàn bèi shuǐ píng

... Xi Jinping's purge of the Chinese army will weaken command capabilities and combat readiness - FX168

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

考文垂:期待“为奥运喝彩”项目组持续发挥文化桥梁作用

kǎo wén chuí qī dài wéi ào yùn hē cǎi xiàng mù zǔ chí xù fā huī wén huà qiáo liáng zuò yòng

Coventry: We look forward to the continued role of the Cheers to the Olympics team in bridging cultures.

Tatoeba

狮子听从驯兽师的指挥。

Shīzi tīngcóng xùn shòu shī de zhǐhuī.

The lion followed the trainer's commands.

Tatoeba

她挥着手向他打招呼。

Tā huīzhe shǒu xiàng tā dǎ zhāohu.

She greeted him waving her hand.

Tatoeba

他后悔自己的挥金如土。

Tā hòuhuǐ zìjǐ de huījīnrútǔ.

He regrets his having wasted his money.

Tatoeba

汤姆最近在工作中发挥不太好。

Tāngmǔ zuì jìn zài gōngzuò zhōng fāhuī bùtàihǎo.

Tom has not been doing very well at work recently.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced huī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 挥 (huī) mean in Chinese?
挥 (huī) primarily means "to wave." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #742 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 挥 have?
挥 is written with 9 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 挥?
The radical associated with 挥 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 挥?
挥 is composed of: 扌 (structural), 军 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌军 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 挥?
Common words with 挥 include: 指挥 (zhǐ huī, "to conduct"); 发挥 (fā huī, "to display"); 指挥官 (zhǐ huī guān, "commander"); 挥手 (huī shǒu, "to wave (one's hand)"); 指挥部 (zhǐ huī bù, "headquarters"). There are over 45 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 挥 (huī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation huī: 会 (can), 回 (to circle), 毁 (to destroy), 汇 (to remit), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 挥 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 挥 and the traditional form is 揮.

Practice writing 挥 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.