茴

huí

noun #68,399

Meanings

HSK 7-9

茴香是中餐常用的香料。

Huíxiāng shì zhōngcān chángyòng de xiāngliào.

Fennel seeds are a common Chinese cooking spice.

HSK 7-9

他要了一碟茴香豆下酒。

Tā yào le yì dié huíxiāngdòu xià jiǔ.

He ordered a small dish of fennel-spiced beans with his wine.

culture

茴香豆 (fennel-flavored beans) is the snack Kong Yiji nibbles in Lu Xun's famous story, asking if anyone knows the four ways to write 茴.

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant

The grass radical on top, marking 茴 as a plant. It pins the word to the herb fennel rather than to any abstract sense.

phonetic

回 huí

to return; to circle back

Supplies the sound directly: 回 huí gives 茴 its exact reading huí, an unusually clean phonetic match with no tone drift.

茴 huí