哄 (hòng): tumult; uproar; rowdy commotion

Meanings

1 tumult; uproar; rowdy commotion
2 to heckle; to make a scene; to stir up a crowd

Characters

哄

hòng

tumult; uproar; rowdy commotion

Examples

演讲者一卡壳，台下就有几个人起哄。

Yǎnjiǎngzhě yī kǎké, táixià jiù yǒu jǐ gè rén qǐhòng.

When the speaker stumbled, a few people in the audience started heckling.

别把他们的话当真，他们就是起哄罢了。

Bié bǎ tāmen de huà dàngzhēn, tāmen jiùshì qǐhòng bàle.

Don't take their teasing seriously — they're just stirring things up.

Tips

usage

The hòng reading is the rowdy-disturbance word — historically written with a separate character 鬨, which has merged into 哄 in the simplified script. It's almost always met inside 起哄 (to heckle, to jeer, to stir up a commotion). The first-tone variant 一哄而散 is also occasionally seen written with the hòng reading as 一鬨而散 — both are accepted.

mistakes

Three tones, three flavors of the same mouth-crowd glyph: hǒng (sweet-talk one person), hōng (roar of a crowd, noise-painting), hòng (rowdy disturbance, brawling-style heckling). Test by context: 哄宝宝 (coax the baby — gentle one-on-one = hǒng); 哄堂大笑 (whole room laughs — mass noise = hōng); 起哄 (heckle / make a scene — rowdy disturbance = hòng).

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Same mouth radical. In the hòng reading the mouth-noise turns aggressive — heckling, jeering, mocking shouts rather than friendly coaxing or shared laughter.

phonetic

共 gòng

together; common

Same 共 phonetic. Historically the hòng sense was written as 鬨 (two warriors inside the 鬥-frame), making the 'brawl / scuffle' meaning explicit. The simplification merged 鬨 into 哄 — same character now, distinguished only by tone and context.