(kuī): to lose (money), to have a deficit, to be deficient, to treat unfairly

(kuī) is a Chinese character meaning “to lose (money).” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #1722 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 5Radical: two3 strokesFrequency #1722 structural

Definitions

  1. to lose (money)
  2. to have a deficit
  3. to be deficient
  4. to treat unfairly

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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
verbduō kuīthanks to6
verbkuī sǔndeficit6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xìng kuīfortunately
kuī qiànto have a deficit
chī kuīto suffer losses
kuī dàito treat sb unfairly
gōng kuī yī kuìlit. to ruin the enterprise for the sake of one basketful
kuī běnto make a loss
kuī kōngin debt
kuī xīn shìshameful deed
kuī defortunately
yíng kuīprofit and loss
lǐ kuīin the wrong
zì fù yíng kuīresponsible for its profit and losses (of organization)
chī yǎ ba kuīto be forced to suffer in silence
huò wèn sān jiā bù chī kuīsee 貨比三家不吃虧|货比三家不吃亏[huo4 bi3 san1 jia1 bu4 chi1 kui1]
bù tīng lǎo rén yán , chī kuī zài yǎn qián(idiom) ignore your elders at your peril
40
Total compounds
35
As first character
45
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 40 compound words: 35 as the first character, 45 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

sǔn
0.6939,931 co-occurrences
yíng
0.5842,049 co-occurrences
niǔ
0.496771 co-occurrences
qiàn
0.478588 co-occurrences
jìng
0.467456 co-occurrences
xìng
0.4271,002 co-occurrences
chī
0.419654 co-occurrences
yán
0.415762 co-occurrences
0.41414 co-occurrences
é
0.408594 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

chī yǎbakuīHSK 7+

to be unable to speak out about one’s grievances

verb
niǔkuīwéiyíngHSK 7+

to turn loss into gain; to be back in the black

phrase
yǒu kuī zhí shǒuHSK 5+

(to be guilty of) dereliction of duty

phrase
zìfù-yíngkuīHSK 7+

to assume sole responsibility for profits and losses (of an enterprise etc.)

phrase
gōngkuīyīkuìHSK 5+

to fall short of success due to the lack of a final effort

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè kuī zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "亏" (kuī) helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

LtnFeb 2026

43亿照发股利!中钢每股拟配现金0.15...

kuī 4 3 yì zhào fā gǔ lì ! zhōng gāng měi gǔ nǐ pèi xiàn jīn 0 . 1 5 . . .

Lose 4.3 billion dividends! China Steel intends to distribute cash per share of 0.15...

中時新聞網Feb 2026

《钢铁股》中钢去年每股0.29元 47年以来赤字 拟配息0.1...

gāng tiě gǔ zhōng gāng qù nián měi gǔ kuī 0 . 2 9 yuán 4 7 nián yǐ lái chì zì nǐ pèi xī 0 . 1 . . .

"Steel Stocks" China Steel lost 0.29 yuan per share last year and has been in the deficit since 47 years, and the proposed dividend is 0.1...

EtnetFeb 2026

【企业盈警】极智嘉(02590)料去年损降至最多3000万人币,经调整转为盈

qǐ yè yíng jǐng jí zhì jiā ( 0 2 5 9 0 ) liào qù nián kuī sǔn jiàng zhì zuì duō 3 0 0 0 wàn rén bì , jīng diào zhěng zhuǎn kuī wéi yíng

Jizhijia (02590) expects its loss to drop to a maximum of 30 million yuan last year, and it has been adjusted to turn a loss into a profit

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

损到赚钱 速腾聚创靠机器人翻身

cóng kuī sǔn dào zhuàn qián sù téng jù chuàng kào jī qì rén fān shēn

From loss to money, Suteng Juchuang relies on robots to turn over

Investing 香港Feb 2026

DHC第四季财报每股损优于预期,股价上涨

D H C dì sì jì cái bào měi gǔ kuī sǔn yōu yú yù qī , gǔ jià shàng zhǎng

DHC's fourth-quarter earnings report reported better-than-expected earnings per share, and shares rose

Tatoeba

你想到这种馊主意!

Kuī nǐ xiǎngdào zhèzhǒng sōuzhǔyi!

Of all the silly ideas!

Tatoeba

你我胃口都没了。

Duōkuī nǐ wǒ wèikǒu dōu méile.

Thanks to you I've lost my appetite.

Tatoeba

了顺风,我们很快就到了那个小岛。

Duōkuī le shùnfēng, wǒmen hěn kuài jiù dào le nàge xiǎodǎo.

Thanks to the favorable wind, we soon reached the island.

Tatoeba

了这场大雨,蔬菜价格直线上升。

Duōkuī le zhè chǎng dàyǔ, shūcài jiàgé zhíxiàn shàngshēng.

Due to the heavy rain, vegetable prices have risen.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the two radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced kuī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 亏 (kuī) mean in Chinese?
亏 (kuī) primarily means "to lose (money)." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1722 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 亏 and 赢?
亏 (kuī) and 赢 (yíng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 亏 (lose) vs 赢 (win).
How many strokes does 亏 have?
亏 is written with 3 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 亏?
The radical associated with 亏 is 二 (two). This radical appears in many characters related to two.
What are the components of 亏?
亏 is composed of: 二 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 亏?
Common words with 亏 include: 多亏 (duō kuī, "thanks to"); 幸亏 (xìng kuī, "fortunately"); 亏欠 (kuī qiàn, "to have a deficit"); 吃亏 (chī kuī, "to suffer losses"); 亏待 (kuī dài, "to treat sb unfairly"). There are over 40 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 亏 (kuī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kuī: 窥 (to peep), 魁 (chief), 愧 (ashamed), 馈 (gift, feedback). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 亏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 亏 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.