肿 (zhǒng): to swell, swelling, swollen

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

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to swell
  2. swelling
  3. swollen

Etymology & Origin

肿

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼中 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
肿瘤nounzhǒng liútumor
肿胀verbzhǒng zhàngswelling
肿块nounzhǒng kuàiswelling
囊肿nounnáng zhǒngcyst (med.)
血肿nounxuè zhǒnghematoma
肺水肿nounfèi shuǐ zhǒngpulmonary edema
浮肿verbfú zhǒng(nonspecialist term for 水腫|水肿) to suffer from edema
臃肿adjectiveyōng zhǒngobese
水肿verbshuǐ zhǒng(medicine) to suffer from edema (dropsy)
鼻青脸肿phrasebí qīng liǎn zhǒnga bloody nose and a swollen face
肿大verbzhǒng dàswelling
红肿verbhóng zhǒnginflamed
恶性肿瘤nounè xìng zhǒng liúmalignant tumor
肿瘤科nounzhǒng liú kēoncology
消肿verbxiāo zhǒngto reduce swelling
35
Total compounds
23
As first character
57
As last character
20
As middle character

肿 appears in 35 compound words: 23 as the first character, 57 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 肿 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

瘤liú
0.8128,992 co-occurrences
胀zhàng
0.631834 co-occurrences
囊náng
0.519546 co-occurrences
恶è
0.511760 co-occurrences
腺xiàn
0.474286 co-occurrences
细xì
0.455670 co-occurrences
淋lín
0.450164 co-occurrences
胞bāo
0.450686 co-occurrences
医yī
0.441944 co-occurrences
脑nǎo
0.438292 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

鼻青脸肿bíqīngliǎnzhǒngHSK 6+

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

phrase
恶性肿瘤èxìng zhǒngliúHSK 7+

malignant tumor

noun
甲状腺肿jiǎzhuàngxiànzhǒngHSK 7+

goitre

noun
良性肿瘤liángxìng zhǒngliúHSK 7+

benign tumor

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

肿字由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?可能是暂时性水肿对吗

. . . 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:不肿不痛还不算痊愈

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

免疫肿瘤学生物技术公司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岁男健身突胸痛肿胀 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:肿瘤恐“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

我得了胃肿瘤,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

他被打得鼻青脸肿的。

Tā bèi dǎ de bíqīngliǎnzhǒng de.

He was beaten black and blue.

Tatoeba

你的腮帮子肿了多久了?

Nǐ de sāibāngzi zhǒng le duōjiǔ le?

How long have your cheeks been swollen?

Tatoeba

我头撞到了门,肿了一块。

Wǒ tóu zhuàngdào le mén, zhǒng le yī kuài.

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

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the ⺼ (flesh) component

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 冲?
肿 (zhǒng) and 冲 (chōng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 冫 (same 中 component).
How many strokes does 肿 have?
肿 is written with 8 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 35 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 肿 (zhǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhǒng: 种 (seed), 钟 (clock, bell), 忠 (loyal), 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 肿 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.