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

HSK 1

她在烘面包。

Tā zài hōng miànbāo.

She is baking bread.

HSK 3

把衣服放在火边烘干。

Bǎ yīfu fàng zài 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 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

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.