混 (hùn): to mix; to blend; to mingle

Meanings

1 to mix; to blend; to mingle
2 to muddle through; to drift along; to get by
3 to pass off as; to sneak in
4 thoughtless; reckless

Characters

混

hùn

to mix; to muddle through

Examples

别把这两种东西混在一起。

Bié bǎ zhè liǎng zhǒng dōngxi hùn zài yīqǐ.

Don't mix these two things together.

他在公司里混了好几年。

Tā zài gōngsī lǐ hùn le hǎo jǐ nián.

He drifted along at the company for several years.

他混进了会场。

Tā hùn jìn le huìchǎng.

He sneaked into the venue.

Tips

usage

混 has a colloquial 'getting by' meaning: 混日子 (muddle through the days), 混得不错 (doing pretty well for yourself). It implies a casual, not very ambitious approach to life.

register

Second reading hún (a variant of 浑) survives mainly in the insult 混蛋 (scoundrel / bastard), where the tone shift signals the abusive register. The closely related 混账 keeps the regular hùn reading. For the bare meanings 'muddy / turbid / muddle-headed', use the separate character 浑.

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Left indexing three-drops water radical — left-side variant of 水. Originally 混 described the muddy, churning state of water mixed with sediment; from "turbid water" came the abstract sense "to mix, blend, muddle." Anchors the char in the water family alongside 浊 (murky), 流 (flow), 浑 (turbid).

phonetic

昆 kūn

elder brother; multitude (here phonetic)

Right 昆 supplies the sound (kūn → hùn through Old Chinese k/h alternation). 昆 itself depicts 日 over 比 (two figures side by side), meaning "many, multitude" — lending a faint flavor of many things crowding together until they blur. Same phonetic family: 棍 (stick), 滚 (roll), 鲲 (fabled fish).