活 (huó): to live; alive; living

Meanings

1 to live; alive; living
2 work; job (colloquial)
3 lively; vivid

Characters

活

huó

to live; alive; lively; work

Contains 氵 (water) + 舌 (tongue) — where there is water and speech, there is life.

Examples

鱼还活着呢。

Yú hái huó zhe ne.

The fish is still alive.

他活到了九十岁。

Tā huó dào le jiǔshí suì.

He lived to ninety years old.

这些活儿很累。

Zhèxiē huór hěn lèi.

This work is very tiring.

Tips

usage

活着 specifically means 'to be alive / living'. 活 also appears in: 生活 (life/lifestyle), 活动 (activity), 干活 (to work).

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form)

Three water drops on the left — the contracted form of 水, indexing radical. Living things need water; 活 belongs to the water-of-life cluster. Same radical anchors 流 (flow), 涌 (gush), 泉 (spring), 潮 (tide) — vital-flow imagery rather than just liquid.

phonetic

舌 shé

tongue

Right phonetic 舌 — historically supplied the sound (shé → huó with heavy Old Chinese drift; the family includes 话, 适, where the same right side appears). Pictographically a tongue protruding from a mouth (千 over 口). Combined picture: water + tongue = a tongue still able to taste, the simplest mark of being alive.