荤 (hūn): strong-smelling vegetable (garlic etc)

荤 (hūn) is a Chinese character meaning “strong-smelling vegetable (garlic etc).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 军 (phonetic). It ranks #3106 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 荤 plant. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 草 (cǎo, grass), 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 艹 grass9 strokesFrequency #3106艹 semantic军 phonetic

Definitions

  1. strong-smelling vegetable (garlic etc)

Etymology & Origin

荤

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹军 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹semantic军phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
荤菜hūn càinon-vegetarian dish (including meat, fish, garlic, onion etc)
有荤有素yǒu hūn yǒu sùto include both meat and vegetables
荤笑话hūn xiào huadirty jokes
七荤八素qī hūn bā sùconfused
开荤kāi hūnto eat meat after having maintained a vegetarian diet
荤话hūn huàobscene speech
五荤wǔ hūn(Buddhism etc) the five forbidden pungent vegetables: leek, scallion, garlic, rape and coriander
茹荤饮酒rú hūn yǐn jiǔto eat meat and drink wine
荤素hūn sùmeat and vegetable
荤油hūn yóulard
油荤yóu hūnmeat foods
荤辛hūn xīnvery pungent and spicy vegetable dishes (a common Buddhist term)
茹荤rú hūnto eat meat
荤腥hūn xīngmeat and fish
荤粥xūn yùXunyu, an ethnic group of northern China in ancient times
15
Total compounds
53
As first character
27
As last character
20
As middle character

荤 appears in 15 compound words: 53 as the first character, 27 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 荤 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

腥xīng
0.555114 co-occurrences
饵ěr
0.54648 co-occurrences
馅xiàn
0.51930 co-occurrences
菜cài
0.473228 co-occurrences
素sù
0.432282 co-occurrences
饮yǐn
0.42248 co-occurrences
食shí
0.391210 co-occurrences
忌jì
0.39130 co-occurrences
戒jiè
0.38548 co-occurrences
吃chī
0.36748 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

七荤八素qī hūn bā sùHSK 7+

confused; distracted

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习荤字需要反复练习，才能写得工整。

xué xí hūn zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Writing the character "荤" requires repeated practice to ensure it is written neatly.

Character Family

艹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the grass radical

蔼ǎi艾ài芭bā薄báo蔽bì菜cài苍cāng藏zàng草cǎo茶chá

Related Characters

草cǎo花huā茶chá菜cài药yào苦kǔ落luò蓝lán节jié苏sū

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 荤 (hūn) mean in Chinese?
荤 (hūn) primarily means "strong-smelling vegetable (garlic etc)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3106 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 荤 and 晕?
荤 (hūn) and 晕 (yūn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 日 (same 军 component).
How many strokes does 荤 have?
荤 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 荤?
The radical associated with 荤 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 荤?
荤 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 军 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹军 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 荤?
Common words with 荤 include: 荤菜 (hūn cài, "non-vegetarian dish (including meat, fish, garlic, onion etc)"); 有荤有素 (yǒu hūn yǒu sù, "to include both meat and vegetables"); 荤笑话 (hūn xiào hua, "dirty jokes"); 七荤八素 (qī hūn bā sù, "confused"); 开荤 (kāi hūn, "to eat meat after having maintained a vegetarian diet"). There are over 15 compound words containing this character.
Is 荤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 荤 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.