(zhǒng): to swell, swelling, swollen

(zhǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “to swell.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1775 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, flesh. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to swell
  2. swelling
  3. swollen

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼中 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
zhǒng liútumor
zhǒng zhàngswelling
zhǒng kuàiswelling
náng zhǒngcyst (med.)
xuè zhǒnghematoma
fèi shuǐ zhǒngpulmonary edema
fú zhǒng(nonspecialist term for 水腫|水肿[shui3 zhong3]) to suffer from edema
yōng zhǒngobese
shuǐ zhǒng(medicine) to suffer from edema (dropsy)
bí qīng liǎn zhǒnga bloody nose and a swollen face
zhǒng dàswelling
hóng zhǒnginflamed
è xìng zhǒng liúmalignant tumor
zhǒng liú kēoncology
xiāo zhǒngto reduce swelling
36
Total compounds
22
As first character
56
As last character
22
As middle character

appears in 36 compound words: 22 as the first character, 56 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

liú
0.84926,915 co-occurrences
zhàng
0.6402,502 co-occurrences
náng
0.5271,638 co-occurrences
è
0.5192,280 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.481858 co-occurrences
0.4622,010 co-occurrences
lín
0.457492 co-occurrences
bāo
0.4572,058 co-occurrences
0.4472,832 co-occurrences
nǎo
0.444876 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

bíqīngliǎnzhǒngHSK 6+

to be black and blue in the face; with a bloody nose and swollen face; to suffer a major setback

phrase
èxìng zhǒngliúHSK 7+

malignant tumor

noun
jiǎzhuàngxiànzhǒngHSK 7+

goitre

noun
liángxìng zhǒngliúHSK 7+

benign tumor

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由10笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

zhǒng zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "肿" consists of ten strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

99 健康网Mar 2026

...肢运动小腹变大需要担心吗?可能是暂时性水对吗

. . . zhī yùn dòng xiǎo fù biàn dà xū yāo dān xīn ma ? kě néng shì zàn shí xìng shuǐ zhǒng duì ma

...Should I be concerned if my lower abdomen gets bigger after exercising? It’s probably just temporary water retention, right?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

医病之间/脚踝扭伤 物理治疗师:不不痛还不算痊愈

yī bìng zhī jiān jiǎo 踝 niǔ shāng wù lǐ zhì liáo shī : bù zhǒng bù tòng hái bù suàn 痊 yù

Between doctors and patients/ankle sprains Physiotherapist: No swelling or pain is not cured

Investing 香港Feb 2026

免疫瘤学生物技术公司Salspera(TKV...

miǎn yì zhǒng liú xué shēng wù jì shù gōng sī S a l s p e r a ( T K V . . .

Immuno-oncology biotechnology company Salspera (TKV...

EttodayFeb 2026

27岁男健身突胸痛胀 竟是罕见“胸大肌断裂”

2 7 suì nán jiàn shēn tū xiōng tòng zhǒng zhàng jìng shì hǎn jiàn xiōng dà jī duàn liè

The 27-year-old man's sudden chest pain and swelling during fitness is actually a rare "pectoralis major muscle rupture"

TvbsFeb 2026

不会痛≠没事!医曝2残酷情况:瘤恐“大到顶腹膜”

bù huì tòng méi shì ! yī pù 2 cán kù qíng kuàng : zhǒng liú kǒng dà dào dǐng fù mó

It won't hurt≠ it's okay! Medical exposure 2 cruel situation: the tumor may be "as big as the parietal peritoneum"

Tatoeba

我得了胃瘤,必须动手术切除。

Wǒ déle wèi zhǒngliú, bìxū dòngshǒu shù qiēchú.

I got a stomach tumor and had to have it operated on.

Tatoeba

他被打得鼻青脸的。

Tā bèi dǎ de bíqīngliǎnzhǒng de.

He was beaten black and blue.

Tatoeba

你的腮帮子了多久了?

Nǐ de sāibāngzi zhǒng le duōjiǔ le?

How long have your cheeks been swollen?

Tatoeba

我头撞到了门,了一块。

Wǒ tóu zhuàngdào le mén, zhǒng le yī kuài.

I bumped my head against the door and got a lump.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhǒng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 肿 (zhǒng) mean in Chinese?
肿 (zhǒng) primarily means "to swell." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1775 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 肿 and 虫?
肿 (zhǒng) and 虫 (chóng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 虫 (same 中 component).
How many strokes does 肿 have?
肿 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 肿?
The radical associated with 肿 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 肿?
肿 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 中 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼中 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 肿?
Common words with 肿 include: 肿瘤 (zhǒng liú, "tumor"); 肿胀 (zhǒng zhàng, "swelling"); 肿块 (zhǒng kuài, "swelling"); 囊肿 (náng zhǒng, "cyst (med.)"); 血肿 (xuè zhǒng, "hematoma"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 肿 (zhǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhǒng: 忠 (loyal), 钟 (clock, bell), 种 (seed), 中 ((bound form) China), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 肿 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 肿 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.