火 (huǒ) · fire; flame

Meanings

1 fire; flame
2 anger; temper
3 popular; hot; trending

Characters

火

huǒ

fire

A pictograph of flames. Also a radical (灬) in characters related to heat and cooking.

Examples

HSK 1

他火了。

Tā huǒ le.

He blew up. / He became famous.

HSK 3

小心火！

Xiǎoxīn huǒ!

Watch out for the fire!

HSK 4

这首歌最近很火。

Zhè shǒu gē zuìjìn hěn huǒ.

This song has been really popular recently.

Tips

usage

火 has two colloquial meanings: 'angry' (他发火了, he got angry) and 'popular/trending' (这个视频很火, this video went viral). Context determines which.

culture

火 is one of the five elements (五行) in Chinese philosophy: 金木水火土 (metal, wood, water, fire, earth).

Components

pictograph

火 huǒ

fire; flame

Pictograph of rising flames - the two short top strokes are sparks flying off, the central downstroke is the main flame body, the supporting flare is heat licking sideways. Also Kangxi radical #86, indexing 灯 (lamp), 烧 (burn), 烟 (smoke), 焰 (flame). As a bottom radical it contracts to 灬 (four dots) in 热, 煮, 蒸.

Radical

Fire Kangxi #86

Pictograph of rising flames. As a radical 火 marks characters about fire, heat, cooking, and combustion: 灯 (lamp), 烟 (smoke), 炒 (stir-fry), 烤 (roast), 烫 (scalding), 燃 (ignite). The bottom variant 灬 (four dots of fire) appears under 热, 煮, 蒸, 焦, where it preserves the same heat semantics.