hóng
adjective #12,001

Meanings

  1. 1 flood; deluge
  2. 2 big; great; vast

Examples

Jīnnián fāshēng le yánzhòng de hóngshuǐ.
Severe flooding occurred this year.
Tā shuōhuàshēng yīn hóngliàng.
He speaks with a loud, resonant voice.

Tips

usage
洪水 (hóngshuǐ) = flood, 洪亮 (hóngliàng) = loud and clear. Also a common surname.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left — the side-form of . It indexes in the water family with river, sea, wave. A is a flood, water gone vast and out of control — the radical anchors the meaning to liquid mass.
phonetic
gòng
together (here phonetic)
Right side supplies the sound — gòng shifted to hóng in 's reading. The 'together' meaning is dormant. There's a faint semantic echo (a flood is water from many sources joined into one mass) but treat here as primarily the phonetic. Compare din, to roast.

Stroke Order

hóng