(pēn): to spout, to spurt, to spray, to puff, (slang) to criticize scathingly (esp. online), (of a smell) strong

(pēn) is a Chinese character meaning “to spout.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1713 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to spout
  2. to spurt
  3. to spray
  4. to puff
  5. (slang) to criticize scathingly (esp. online)
  6. (of a smell) strong

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口贲 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
pēn quánfountain
pēn shèto spurt
dǎ pēn tìto sneeze
pēn qì jījet plane
pēn qīto spray paint or lacquer
pēn qìto spurt steam (or air etc)
pēn qì shìjet-propelled
pēn tìsneeze
pēn jiànto splash
pēn fāto erupt
pēn sǎto spray
pēn zuǐnozzle
pēn tóunozzle
pēn wù qìsprayer
pēn dēngblowtorch
63
Total compounds
75
As first character
6
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 63 compound words: 75 as the first character, 6 as the last, and 19 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.

0.69655,440 co-occurrences
0.6311,212 co-occurrences
tuī
0.61145,690 co-occurrences
jìn
0.57846,092 co-occurrences
0.5701,512 co-occurrences
quán
0.56013,122 co-occurrences
0.5472,196 co-occurrences
guō
0.5001,224 co-occurrences
0.4932,034 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.489354 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

gǒuxuèpēntóuHSK 6+

to bite someone's head off; to scold fiercely; to curse; to berate

phrase
hánxuèpēnrénHSK 6+

to slander someone; to falsely accuse someone

phrase
pēn bó yù chūHSK 6+

to be on the verge of eruption (idiom); (of the sun) to emerge in all its brilliance

phrase
xuèkǒupēnrénHSK 6+

to make unfounded and malicious attacks upon somebody; to venomously slander

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈嘱我要按时吃饭,注意身体健康。

mā mā pēn zhǔ wǒ yāo àn shí chī fàn , zhù yì shēn tī jiàn kāng .

Mom kept reminding me to eat on time and take care of my health.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...!火山灰柱窜天高达2500公尺 本周二度

. . . ! huǒ shān huī zhù cuàn tiān gāo dá 2 5 0 0 gōng chǐ běn zhōu èr dù pēn fā

...! Volcanic ash columns soared up to 2,500 meters high and erupted twice this week

中時新聞網Feb 2026

坐等全村希望! 辉达领涨 那指270点

zuò děng quán cūn xī wàng ! huī dá lǐng zhǎng nà zhǐ pēn 2 7 0 diǎn

Sit and wait for the hope of the whole village! Nvidia led the gains, and the index sprayed 270 points

Intimes NewsFeb 2026

菲马荣火山发 火山灰柱高达1000米

菲 mǎ róng huǒ shān pēn fā huǒ shān huī zhù gāo dá 1 0 0 0 mǐ

Mount Fimaron erupted ash columns up to 1,000 meters high

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

...到被盯上!台积电罕见入列注意股 今年来已涨近27%

. . . dào bèi dīng shàng ! tái jī diàn hǎn jiàn rù liè zhù yì gǔ jīn nián lái yǐ pēn zhǎng jìn 2 7

... To be targeted! TSMC is rarely listed as a stock to watch and has risen nearly 27% this year

三立新聞網Feb 2026

独/富台指3% 周经翔曝台股红盘日走势

dú fù tái zhǐ pēn 3 zhōu jīng xiáng pù tái gǔ hóng pán rì zǒu shì

Unique/rich Taiwan index sprayed 3% Zhou Jingxiang exposed the daily trend of Taiwan stocks in the red market

Tatoeba

玛丽的包里有辣椒雾。

Mǎlì de bāo lǐ yǒu làjiāo pēnwù.

Mary carries pepper spray in her purse.

Tatoeba

我想我要打嚏了。。。给我张纸巾。

Wǒ xiǎng wǒ yào dǎpēntì le... gěi wǒ zhāng zhǐjīn.

I think I'm gonna sneeze. Give me a tissue.

Tatoeba

火山突然发,造成了多人死亡。

Huǒshān tūrán pēnfā, zàochéng le duō rén sǐwáng.

The volcano erupted suddenly, killing many people.

Tatoeba

为什么你们在打嚏?

Wèishénme nǐmen zài dǎpēntì?

Why are you sneezing?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced pēn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 喷 (pēn) mean in Chinese?
喷 (pēn) primarily means "to spout." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1713 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 喷 and 淡?
喷 (pēn) and 淡 (dàn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 喷 (strong) vs 淡 (weak).
How many strokes does 喷 have?
喷 is written with 12 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 喷?
The radical associated with 喷 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 喷?
喷 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 贲 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口贲 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 喷?
Common words with 喷 include: 喷泉 (pēn quán, "fountain"); 喷射 (pēn shè, "to spurt"); 打喷嚏 (dǎ pēn tì, "to sneeze"); 喷气机 (pēn qì jī, "jet plane"); 喷漆 (pēn qī, "to spray paint or lacquer"). There are over 63 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 喷 (pēn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pēn: 盆 (basin). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 喷 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 喷 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.