恍

huǎng
adjective #41,710

Meanings

  1. 1 in a daze; absent-minded
  2. 2 all of a sudden (as if waking)

Examples

HSK 7-9
Tā huǎnghū de zuò zhe, shénme yě méi tīngjiàn.
He sat there in a daze, having heard nothing.
HSK 7-9
Tā zhè cái huǎngrán-dàwù.
Only then did it suddenly dawn on him.

Tips

usage
Two senses meet in the idea of a foggy mind. 恍惚 means dazed or absent-minded; 恍然大悟 means to suddenly realize, like snapping out of that fog into clarity.

Components

radical
忄 xīn
heart (radical form)
Left heart radical, the side-form of 心. A hazy or suddenly clear state is a condition of the mind, so the heart radical files it among mental-state words. Same family as 怕 and 悟.
phonetic
光 guāng
light; bright
Right 光 supplies the sound, guāng drifting to huǎng. Its sense of light loosely fits the 'sudden clarity' meaning, but the main role is phonetic. The same phonetic appears in 晃.

Stroke Order

恍 huǎng