hòu
adjective HSK 4 #4,609

Meanings

  1. 1 thick (of flat objects)
  2. 2 deep; rich; generous
  3. 3 kind; sincere

Examples

Zhè běn shū hěn hòu.
This book is very thick.
Dōngtiān yào chuān hòu yīdiǎn de yīfu.
In winter you should wear thicker clothes.
Tā liǎnpí hěn hòu.
He is very thick-skinned (shameless).

Tips

usage
(thick, for flat things) vs (thick, for round things like ropes/trees). is also the opposite of (thin). 脸皮厚 means 'thick-skinned/shameless'.

Components

radical
hǎn
cliff; factory (modern)
Top-left cliff radical — the indexing radical, pictograph of a steep overhanging cliff face. In it represents the thick stone wall of a cliff: a deep, substantial mass of rock. Same family of cliff-base chars: (origin/plain), (disgust), (kitchen), (mansion). The modern simplification reuses for 'factory' but the original sense remains in .
semantic
sun; day
Inner upper — though now drawn as the sun, this position historically held 's older shape (a vessel marker). In modern analysis it reads cleanly as , contributing to the layered, dense feel of the character. Combined with (cliff) and (child) below, the visual stack suggests 'thick layers of stone, sun, and ground' — substance built up.
semantic
child; small thing
Inner lower — historically not the modern 'child' but a stylized vessel-base graph that has converged with in the modern shape. Together with above it gives the meaning 'thick, deep, substantial': the deep accumulated mass under the cliff. Modern means thick (厚墙 thick wall), generous (厚道 generous), or profound (深厚 deep).

Stroke Order

hòu