烘 (hōng): to bake

Meanings

1 to bake
2 to heat by fire
3 to set off by contrast

Characters

烘

hōng

to bake; to heat by fire

Examples

她在烘面包。

Tā zài hōng miànbāo.

She is baking bread.

把衣服放在火边烘干。

Bǎ yīfu fàngzài huǒ biān hōnggān.

Put the clothes by the fire to dry them.

Tips

usage

烘 emphasizes drying or warming with heat, as opposed to 烤 (kǎo) which means to roast or grill.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire

Left fire radical — pictograph of leaping flames. The indexing radical, marking 烘 as a fire/heat verb: to bake, dry by warmth, or roast gently. Same radical groups 烘 with 烧 (burn), 烤 (roast), 烫 (scald). Gentle drying heat — like an oven on low — is the precise nuance, distinguishing 烘 from violent burning.

phonetic

共 gòng

together (here phonetic)

Right 共 supplies the sound — gòng shifting to hōng with a regular g/h alternation. 共 itself shows two hands lifting an object together. Faint semantic echo: family members gathering around a shared hearth. Same phonetic core feeds 供 (supply), 拱 (cup hands), 哄 (uproar), all in the gòng/hōng family.