涡 (wō): eddy, whirlpool, name of a river

涡 (wō) is a Chinese character meaning “eddy.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (structural) and 呙 (structural). It ranks #2607 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 涡 a mouth 呙 made of water 氵. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. eddy
  2. whirlpool
  3. name of a river

Etymology & Origin

涡

ideographicA mouth 呙 made of water 氵

Decomposition: ⿰氵呙 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
漩涡nounxuán wōwhirlpool
涡轮nounwō lúnturbine
涡流wō liú(electronics) eddy current
旋涡xuán wōspiral
涡旋nounwō xuáneddy
涡轮喷气发动机wō lún pēn qì fā dòng jīturbojet
涡轮轴发动机wō lún zhóu fā dòng jīturboshaft
准稳旋涡结构zhǔn wěn xuán wō jié gòuquasi-stationary spiral structure QSSS (astrophysics)
旋涡星系xuán wō xīng xìspiral galaxy
环极涡旋huán jí wō xuáncircumpolar vortex
旋涡星云xuán wō xīng yúnspiral nebula
笑涡xiào wōvariant of 笑窩|笑窝
涡阳县guō yáng xiànGuoyang, a county in Bozhou City 亳州市, Anhui
旋涡状xuán wō zhuàngspiral-shaped
酒涡jiǔ wōvariant of 酒窩|酒窝
23
Total compounds
52
As first character
26
As last character
22
As middle character

涡 appears in 23 compound words: 52 as the first character, 26 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 涡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

轮lún
0.5865,499 co-occurrences
压yā
0.5471,652 co-occurrences
扇shān
0.535540 co-occurrences
桨jiǎng
0.533236 co-occurrences
旋xuán
0.5161,428 co-occurrences
喷pēn
0.493408 co-occurrences
蒸zhēng
0.458294 co-occurrences
增zēng
0.4401,410 co-occurrences
滨bīn
0.435270 co-occurrences
轴zhóu
0.412184 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

旋涡星系xuán wō xīng xìHSK 7+

spiral galaxy

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条涡流经三个省份,滋养了沿岸的农田。

zhè tiáo guō liú jīng sān gě shěng fèn , zī yǎng le yán àn de nóng tián .

This eddy flows through three provinces, nourishing the farmland along its banks.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

若水面有漩涡或异响,立即止步,那是井盖被冲开的信号。

ruò shuǐ miàn yǒu 漩 guō huò yì xiǎng , lì jí zhǐ bù , nà shì jǐng gài bèi chōng kāi de xìn hào .

If you see a whirlpool or hear an unusual noise on the water's surface, stop immediately—these are signs that a manhole cover has been washed away.

奇客SolidotAug 2026

在新的高分辨率图像中,太阳表面主要呈现带状和涡旋状结构。

zài xīn de gāo fēn biàn lǜ tú xiàng zhōng , tài yáng biǎo miàn zhǔ yāo chéng xiàn dài zhuàng hé guō xuán zhuàng jié gòu .

In the new high-resolution images, the Sun's surface primarily exhibits banded and vortex-like structures.

爱范儿Jun 2026

研发团队通过轻量化双层镂空扰流板切割尾流、打散涡流。

yán fā tuán duì tōng guò qīng liàng huà shuāng céng 镂 kōng rǎo liú bǎn qiē gē wěi liú , dǎ sàn guō liú .

The R&D team uses a lightweight, double-layer, openwork spoiler to slice through the wake and disperse vortices.

EttodayMar 2026

...轻型面包车”推小改款!N-Van首次导入涡轮动力更能载

. . . qīng xíng miàn bāo chē tuī xiǎo gǎi kuǎn ! N V a n shǒu cì dǎo rù guō lún dòng lì gēng néng zài

...The "light-duty van" gets a minor facelift! The N-Van introduces a turbocharged engine for the first time, offering even greater cargo capacity

LtnMar 2026

台积电入列!三家AI公司卷入中东战争漩涡 外媒曝持股10年充分有理

tái jī diàn rù liè ! sān jiā A I gōng sī juǎn rù zhōng dōng zhàn zhēng 漩 guō wài méi pù chí gǔ 1 0 nián chōng fēn yǒu lǐ

TSMC Joins the List! Three AI Companies Caught in the Vortex of the Middle East War; Foreign Media Reports That Holding Shares for 10 Years Is Fully Justified

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced wō

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 涡 (wō) mean in Chinese?
涡 (wō) primarily means "eddy." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2607 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 涡 have?
涡 is written with 10 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 涡?
The radical associated with 涡 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 涡?
涡 is composed of: 氵 (structural), 呙 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵呙 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 涡?
Common words with 涡 include: 漩涡 (xuán wō, "whirlpool"); 涡轮 (wō lún, "turbine"); 涡流 (wō liú, "(electronics) eddy current"); 旋涡 (xuán wō, "spiral"); 涡旋 (wō xuán, "eddy"). There are over 23 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 涡 (wō)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wō: 我 (I), 握 (to hold), 卧 (to lie), 沃 (fertile), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 涡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 涡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 涡 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.