(huī): to restore, to recover, great

(huī) is a Chinese character meaning “to restore.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1356 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, heart. Its radical form (heart) appears in many related characters such as (máng, busy), (kuài, fast, happy), (zěn, how).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to restore
  2. to recover
  3. great

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿰忄灰 (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
verbhuī fùto reinstate5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
huī fù qīconvalescence
huī hóngvast
tiān wǎng huī huīlit. heaven's net has wide meshes, but nothing escapes it (idiom, from Laozi 73)
huī fù cháng tàito return to normal
huī fù yuán zhuàngto restore sth to its original state
tiān wǎng huī huī , shū ér bù shīlit. heaven's net has wide meshes, but nothing escapes it (idiom, from Laozi 73)
huī huī yǒu yúlit. to have an abundance of space
huī fù míng yùto rehabilitate
qì dù huī hóngbroad-minded
tiān wǎng huī huī , shū ér bù lòulit. heaven's net has wide meshes, but nothing escapes it (idiom, from Laozi 73)
fǎ wǎng huī huī , shū ér bù lòularge though its mesh may be, no criminal can slip through the wide net of justice
huī huī(literary) vast
huī hóngvariant of 恢宏[hui1 hong2]
14
Total compounds
64
As first character
0
As last character
36
As middle character

appears in 14 compound words: 64 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 36 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.

0.795257,503 co-occurrences
zhì
0.4152,586 co-occurrences
yíng
0.41011,232 co-occurrences
cái
0.40012,636 co-occurrences
zhú
0.3938,088 co-occurrences
xiǎn
0.3823,684 co-occurrences
jiān
0.3802,904 co-occurrences
cháng
0.37521,282 co-occurrences
tài
0.3744,992 co-occurrences
dèng
0.3671,512 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

huī huī yǒu yúHSK 5+

lit. to have an abundance of space; room to maneuver (idiom)

phrase
tiānwǎnghuīhuīHSK 5+

natural law

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

经过一段时间的休养,他的身体已经复了健康。

Jīngguò yī duàn shíjiān de xiūyǎng, tā de shēntǐ yǐjīng huīfù le jiànkāng.

After a period of rest, his health has been restored.

99 健康网Feb 2026

...期喝了酒对宝宝有没有影响?戒酒后胎儿还能复正常吗

. . . qī hē le jiǔ duì bǎo bǎo yǒu méi yǒu yǐng xiǎng ? jiè jiǔ hòu tāi ér hái néng huī fù zhèng cháng ma

... Does drinking alcohol affect the baby? Can the fetus return to normal after quitting drinking?

中時新聞網Feb 2026

...針性慾歸零「快出家了」 醫揭關鍵:吃對就

. . . 針 xìng 慾 歸 líng kuài chū jiā le 醫 jiē 關 鍵 chī 對 jiù huī 復

... Needle libido returns to zero "I'm about to become a monk" The doctor reveals the key: eat the right and recover

東森新聞Feb 2026

濃霧散去!台中機場07:22復起降 影響4架次航班

濃 霧 sàn qù ! tái zhōng 機 場 huī 復 qǐ jiàng yǐng 響 jià cì háng bān

Fog lifts! Taichung Airport resumes operations at 07:22, affecting 4 flights.

News For ChineseFeb 2026

DHS復PreCheck專案

huī 復 專 àn

DHS resumes the PreCheck program

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

春節加成最後一天 新北計程車明天0時起復一般費率

chūn 節 jiā chéng zuì 後 yī tiān xīn běi 計 chéng 車 míng tiān 時 qǐ huī 復 yī bān 費 lǜ

Last Day of Spring Festival Surcharge: New Taipei City Taxis to Resume Standard Rates Starting Tomorrow at Midnight

Tatoeba

要很长的时间才能复吗?

Yào hěn cháng de shíjiān cáinéng huīfù ma?

Will it take long to recover?

Tatoeba

你知道怎么复已删除的文件吗?

Nǐ zhīdào zěnme huīfù yǐ shānchú de wénjiàn ma?

Do you know how to recover a deleted file?

Tatoeba

暴风雨后,大海复了平静。

Bàofēngyǔ hòu, dàhǎi huīfù le píngjìng.

After the storm, the sea was quiet again.

Tatoeba

他在意外发生的三个小时后复意识。

Tā zàiyì wài fāshēng de sān gè xiǎoshí hòu huīfù yìshí.

He regained consciousness three hours after the accident.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced huī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 恢 (huī) mean in Chinese?
恢 (huī) primarily means "to restore." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1356 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 恢 have?
恢 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 恢?
The radical associated with 恢 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 恢?
恢 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), 灰 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄灰 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 恢?
Common words with 恢 include: 恢复 (huī fù, "to reinstate"); 恢复期 (huī fù qī, "convalescence"); 恢宏 (huī hóng, "vast"); 天网恢恢 (tiān wǎng huī huī, "lit. heaven's net has wide meshes, but nothing escapes it (idiom, from Laozi 73)"); 恢复常态 (huī fù cháng tài, "to return to normal"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 恢 (huī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation huī: 灰 (ash, gray), 挥 (to wave), 辉 (brilliant), 回 (to circle), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 恢 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 恢 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.