夸 (kuā): to boast, to exaggerate, to praise

夸 (kuā) is a Chinese character meaning “to boast.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 大 (semantic) and 亏 (phonetic). It ranks #1928 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 夸 great. Its radical form 大 (big) appears in many related characters such as 大 (dà, big), 天 (tiān, day), 太 (tài, highest).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to boast
  2. to exaggerate
  3. to praise

Etymology & Origin

夸

pictophoneticgreat

Decomposition: ⿱大亏 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 夸

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
夸张adjectivekuā zhāngto exaggerate6
夸奖verbkuā jiǎngto praise6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
夸大verbkuā dàto exaggerate
夸大其词phrasekuā dà qí cíto exaggerate
夸夸其谈phrasekuā kuā qí tánvariant of 誇誇其談|夸夸其谈
夸耀verbkuā yàoto brag about
自夸verbzì kuāto boast
浮夸adjectivefú kuāto exaggerate
夸赞verbkuā zànto praise
夸口verbkuā kǒuto boast
虚夸adjectivexū kuāto boast
夸下海口kuā xia hǎi kǒusee 誇海口|夸海口
夸大之词kuā dà zhī cíhyperbole
上夸克nounshàng kuā kèup quark (particle physics)
下夸克nounxià kuā kèdown quark (particle physics)
夸海口kuā hǎi kǒuto boast
奇异夸克nounqí yì kuā kèstrange quark (particle physics)
27
Total compounds
56
As first character
22
As last character
22
As middle character

夸 appears in 27 compound words: 56 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 22 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 夸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

躬gōng
0.70510 co-occurrences
膝xī
0.68812 co-occurrences
屈qū
0.63413 co-occurrences
卑bēi
0.61610 co-occurrences
张zhāng
0.4872,138 co-occurrences
克kè
0.4826,204 co-occurrences
浮fú
0.432464 co-occurrences
粒lì
0.391120 co-occurrences
肖xiào
0.388206 co-occurrences
耀yào
0.380246 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

夸大其词kuādàqícíHSK 6+

to make an overstatement; to exaggerate

phrase
夸多斗靡kuā duō dòu mǐ

(idiom) to use literary phrases in one's writing to show off one's erudition

phrase
夸夸其谈kuākuāqítánHSK 6+

to boast; to talk big

phrase
夸下海口kuā xia hǎi kǒuHSK 6+

see 誇海口|夸海口

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好夸字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo kuā zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "夸" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

東方日報Feb 2026

Apple促美国驳回集体诉讼 否认夸大Siri AI功能

A p p l e cù měi guó bó huí jí tǐ sù sòng fǒu rèn kuā dà S i r i A I gōng néng

Apple urges the United States to dismiss class action lawsuit denying exaggerating Siri AI features

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

川普夸吸引投资18兆美元、喊关税取代所得税 纽...

chuān pǔ kuā xī yǐn tóu zī 1 8 zhào měi yuán , hǎn guān shuì qǔ dài suǒ dé shuì niǔ . . .

Trump boasted of attracting $18 trillion in investment and calling tariffs to replace income tax New Zealand...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

川普选前夸口能终战 纽时:看看乌克兰现在变怎样

chuān pǔ xuǎn qián kuā kǒu néng zhōng zhàn niǔ shí : kàn kàn wū kè lán xiàn zài biàn zěn yàng

Trump boasted before the election that he could end the war New York Times: See what happens to Ukraine now

東方日報Feb 2026

公务员上相亲节目 夸大资产被批评教育

gōng wù yuán shàng xiāng qīn jié mù kuā dà zī chǎn bèi pī píng jiào yù

Civil servants on blind date shows are criticized for exaggerating assets and education

東方日報Feb 2026

【有片】“曼联JJ”浮夸金球 卡域克被禁起用?

yǒu piàn 曼 lián J J fú kuā jīn qiú kǎ yù kè bèi jīn qǐ yòng ?

"Manchester United JJ" exaggerated golden ball Carrick was banned?

Tatoeba

我也觉得说成「人间地狱」是夸张了点。

Wǒ yě juéde shuō chéng 「 rénjiāndìyù 」 shì kuāzhāng le diǎn.

I also think 'living hell' is putting it too strongly.

Tatoeba

我要一夸脫的牛奶。

Wǒ yào yī kuā tuō de niúnǎi.

I want a quart of milk.

Tatoeba

在我看来,她有一种夸张的倾向。

Zàiwǒkànlái, tā yǒu yīzhǒng kuāzhāng de qīngxiàng.

It seems to me that she has a tendency to exaggerate.

Tatoeba

我都不知道该怎么夸他们了。

Wǒ dōu bù zhīdào gāi zěnme kuā tāmen le.

I cannot praise them too highly.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 大 (great) component

大 Radical Family — Characters sharing the big radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced kuā

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 夸 (kuā) mean in Chinese?
夸 (kuā) primarily means "to boast." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1928 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 夸 and 污?
夸 (kuā) and 污 (wū) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 大 vs 氵 (same 亏 component).
How many strokes does 夸 have?
夸 is written with 6 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 夸?
The radical associated with 夸 is 大 (big). This radical appears in many characters related to big.
What are the components of 夸?
夸 is composed of: 大 (semantic), 亏 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱大亏 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 夸?
Common words with 夸 include: 夸张 (kuā zhāng, "to exaggerate"); 夸奖 (kuā jiǎng, "to praise"); 夸大 (kuā dà, "to exaggerate"); 夸大其词 (kuā dà qí cí, "to exaggerate"); 夸夸其谈 (kuā kuā qí tán, "variant of 誇誇其談|夸夸其谈"). There are over 27 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 夸 (kuā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kuā: 跨 (to stride, to cross), 垮 (to collapse (lit. or fig.)), 挎 (to carry (esp. slung over the arm, shoulder or side)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 夸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 夸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 夸 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.