秽 (huì): (bound form) dirty, filthy

秽 (huì) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) dirty.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 禾 (semantic) and 岁 (phonetic). It ranks #2796 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 秽 grain. Its radical form 禾 (grain) appears in many related characters such as 秋 (qiū, autumn), 科 (kē, branch of study), 租 (zū, to hire).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 禾 grain11 strokesFrequency #2796禾 semantic岁 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (bound form) dirty
  2. filthy

Etymology & Origin

秽

pictophoneticgrain

Decomposition: ⿰禾岁 (layout: left-right)

Components:禾semantic岁phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
污秽wū huì(literary) dirty
淫秽yín huìobscene
污言秽语wū yán huì yǔ(idiom) filthy speech
秽语huì yǔobscene language
自惭形秽zì cán xíng huì(idiom) to feel inferior
秽水huì shuǐdirty water
淫词秽语yín cí huì yǔ(idiom) obscene words
芜秽wú huìto be overgrown with weeds
8
Total compounds
25
As first character
50
As last character
25
As middle character

秽 appears in 8 compound words: 25 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 25 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 秽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

污wū
0.5661,362 co-occurrences
贪tān
0.453132 co-occurrences
臭chòu
0.448132 co-occurrences
粪fèn
0.44648 co-occurrences
贩fàn
0.41266 co-occurrences
赌dǔ
0.41154 co-occurrences
浊zhuó
0.39936 co-occurrences
骂mà
0.39736 co-occurrences
鄙bǐ
0.39536 co-occurrences
净jìng
0.39084 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

污言秽语wū yán huì yǔHSK 7+

(idiom) filthy speech; obscenities

phrase
自惭形秽zìcánxínghuìHSK 7+

to feel ashamed of one's inferiority

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

秽字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

huì zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The word "filth" has different usages in different contexts.

EttodayFeb 2026

...性骚! 佛大硕生被仁波切狂摸下体:在吸收秽气

. . . xìng sāo ! fó dà shuò shēng bèi rén bō qiē kuáng mō xià tǐ : zài xī shōu huì qì

... Sexy! The Buddha Da Shuo Sheng was wildly touched by Rinpoche's lower body: absorbing the filthy air

Character Family

禾 Radical Family — Characters sharing the grain radical

程chéng稠chóu稻dào稿gǎo积jī稽jī稼jià秘mì秒miǎo穆mù

Related Characters

秋qiū科kē租zū称chèn种zhǒng积jī程chéng秀xiù秘mì移yí

Homophones — Characters pronounced huì

灰huī恢huī挥huī辉huī回huí悔huǐ毁huǐ汇huì会huì惠huì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 秽 (huì) mean in Chinese?
秽 (huì) primarily means "(bound form) dirty." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2796 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 秽 and 洁?
秽 (huì) and 洁 (jié) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 秽 (dirty) vs 洁 (clean).
How many strokes does 秽 have?
秽 is written with 11 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 秽?
The radical associated with 秽 is 禾 (grain). This radical appears in many characters related to grain.
What are the components of 秽?
秽 is composed of: 禾 (semantic), 岁 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰禾岁 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 秽?
Common words with 秽 include: 污秽 (wū huì, "(literary) dirty"); 淫秽 (yín huì, "obscene"); 污言秽语 (wū yán huì yǔ, "(idiom) filthy speech"); 秽语 (huì yǔ, "obscene language"); 自惭形秽 (zì cán xíng huì, "(idiom) to feel inferior"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 秽 (huì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation huì: 灰 (ash, gray), 恢 (to restore), 挥 (to wave), 辉 (brilliant), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 秽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 秽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.