(hùn): to mix, to mingle, muddled, to drift along, to muddle along, to pass for

(hùn) is a Chinese character meaning “to mix.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1135 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to mix
  2. to mingle
  3. muddled
  4. to drift along
  5. to muddle along
  6. to pass for

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵昆 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
adjectivehùn luànconfused6
verbhùn héto mix6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hún dànscoundrel
guǐ hùnto hang around
hùn zhàngshameful
hùn jìnto infiltrate
hùn xiáoto obscure
hùn níng tǔconcrete (building material)
hùn dùnprimal chaos (original state of the universe in Chinese mythology)
hùn rùto sneak into
hùn hé wùmixture
hùn zhànchaotic warfare
hùn wéi yī tánto confuse one thing with another (idiom)
sī hùn(derog.) to hang out (with sb)
hùn xuè érperson of mixed blood
hùn záto mix
méng hùn guò guānto get away with it
95
Total compounds
73
As first character
13
As last character
15
As middle character

appears in 95 compound words: 73 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 15 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.

xiáo
0.74545,029 co-occurrences
níng
0.69258,110 co-occurrences
0.644407,966 co-occurrences
jīn
0.58814,586 co-occurrences
luàn
0.58436,134 co-occurrences
0.581152,376 co-occurrences
xiě
0.51240,210 co-occurrences
0.50160,330 co-occurrences
yǒng
0.49016,656 co-occurrences
shuāng
0.48228,068 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

hùn shì mó wángHSK 7+

devil incarnate (idiom); fiend in human form

phrase
húnshuǐmōyúHSK 6+

alternative form of 渾水摸魚 /浑水摸鱼 (húnshuǐmōyú)

phrase
hùnwéiyītánHSK 6+

to equate; to muddle; to confuse one thing for another

phrase
hùn xiáo hēi báiHSK 7+

to confuse black and white; to say that black is white; fig. not to distinguish right from wrong

phrase
hùnxiáoshìtīngHSK 7+

to mislead the public with prevarication and deliberate falsehoods; to obscure the facts

phrase
hùnxiáo shìfēiHSK 7+

to confuse right and wrong

phrase
lóngshéhùnzáHSK 6+

good and bad people mixed up; wise and unwise huddled together

phrase
ménghùn guòguānHSK 7+

to slip by; to gloss over one's fault

phrase
yúlónghùnzáHSK 6+

good and bad things or people being mixed together indiscriminately

phrase
yúmùhùnzhūHSK 6+

to pass off fake products as genuine

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

不要把不同种类的垃圾在一起,要分类投放。

Bùyào bǎ bùtóng zhǒnglèi de lājī hùn zài yīqǐ, yào fēnlèi tóufàng.

Don't mix different types of garbage together; sort and dispose of them properly.

99 健康网Feb 2026

低糖食品和无糖食品一样吗?标准不同能用吗

dī táng shí pǐn hé wú táng shí pǐn yī yàng ma ? biāo zhǔn bù tóng néng hùn yòng ma

Are low-sugar foods the same as sugar-free foods? Can they be used interchangeably despite different standards?

TechnewsFeb 2026

深海魚視網膜發現新「血」視覺細胞,顛覆 150 年生物學認知

shēn hǎi 魚 視 網 mó 發 現 xīn hùn xiě 視 覺 細 bāo , 顛 fù nián shēng wù 學 認 zhī

New hybrid photoreceptor cells discovered in deep-sea fish retinas overturn 150 years of biological understanding

Hk01.comFeb 2026

歐洲議會不滿特朗普關稅政策亂 暫停表決歐美貿易協議

歐 zhōu 議 會 bù 滿 tè lǎng pǔ 關 稅 zhèng cè hùn 亂 暫 tíng biǎo 決 歐 měi 貿 yì 協 議

European Parliament expresses dissatisfaction with Trump's chaotic tariff policies, suspends vote on EU-US trade agreement

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...暫停表决歐美貿易協議 不滿特朗普關稅政策

. . . 暫 tíng biǎo jué 歐 měi 貿 yì 協 議 bù 滿 tè lǎng pǔ 關 稅 zhèng cè hùn 亂

...Vote on EU-US trade agreement postponed amid discontent over Trump's chaotic tariff policies

東森新聞Feb 2026

輸不起?客怨飛鏢全射中 老闆才喊不能

輸 bù qǐ ? kè yuàn 飛 鏢 quán shè zhōng lǎo 闆 cái hǎn bù néng hùn sè

Can't take a loss? Customers complained darts kept hitting the bullseye—then the owner finally said no mixed colors allowed.

Tatoeba

吉尔吉斯斯坦的情况十分乱。

Jí'ěrjísīsītǎn de qíngkuàng shífēn hùnluàn.

The situation in Kyrgyzstan is a real mess.

Tatoeba

我又把它们淆了!

Wǒ yòu bǎ tāmen hùnxiáo le!

I mixed them up again!

Tatoeba

合物搅拌均匀。

Jiāng hùnhéwù jiǎobàn jūnyún.

Blend the mixture together until it is smooth.

Tatoeba

奥林匹斯山? 那不是希腊众神鬼的地方?

ào lín pǐ sī shān? nà bù shì Xīlà zhòng shén guǐhùn de dìfang?

Olympus? Isn't that where Greek gods hang out or something?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced hùn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 混 (hùn) mean in Chinese?
混 (hùn) primarily means "to mix." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1135 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 混 and 棍?
混 (hùn) and 棍 (gùn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 木 (same 昆 component).
How many strokes does 混 have?
混 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 混?
The radical associated with 混 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 混?
混 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 昆 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵昆 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 混?
Common words with 混 include: 混蛋 (hún dàn, "scoundrel"); 混乱 (hùn luàn, "confused"); 混合 (hùn hé, "to mix"); 鬼混 (guǐ hùn, "to hang around"); 混账 (hùn zhàng, "shameful"). There are over 95 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 混 (hùn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hùn: 昏 (muddle-headed), 婚 (marriage), 浑 (muddy), 魂 (soul). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 混 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 混 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.