祸 meaning and stroke order
Misfortune, disaster, calamity
How to write 祸, stroke by stroke
11 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 祸
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- disaster
- misfortune
- calamity
- old variant of 禍|祸[huo4]
How 祸 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Spirit.
礻 gives the meaning and 呙 hints at the sound.
Radical: 礻 (spirit), shared by 43 characters on this site.
How to remember 祸
祸 combines the spirit radical 礻 with 呙 (guō/wō), which gives the sound. Picture the spirits sending down misfortune, since in old belief disasters came from the spirit world.
祸 rarely stands alone in modern speech. It appears mostly in compounds like 车祸 (chēhuò, car crash), 闯祸 (chuǎnghuò, to get into trouble) and 灾祸 (zāihuò, disaster). Example: 他昨天出了车祸。(Tā zuótiān chūle chēhuò.) He was in a car accident yesterday.
Common mistake: Learners often write 衤 (the clothing radical, with an extra dot) instead of 礻 on the left. 祸 is about spirits, so it takes 礻 like 福 (fú, good fortune). Also keep the fourth tone huò, not huǒ like 火 (fire).
Common words with 祸
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 车祸 | chēhuò | traffic accident; car crash | HSK 7-9 |
| 罪魁祸首 | zuìkuí-huòshǒu | (idiom) criminal ringleader; main offender; main culprit; main cause of a disaster | HSK 7-9 |
| 祸害 | huòhai | disaster; harm | HSK 7-9 |
| 闯祸 | chuǎnghuò | to cause an accident; to make trouble; to get into trouble | |
| 嫁祸 | jiàhuò | to impute; to shift the blame onto someone else | |
| 幸灾乐祸 | xìngzāilèhuò | (idiom) to take pleasure in another's misfortune | |
| 灾祸 | zāihuò | disaster | |
| 大祸 | dàhuò | disaster; calamity | |
| 惹祸 | rěhuò | to stir up trouble; to invite disaster |
祸 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 祸
How many strokes are in 祸?
祸 is written with 11 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 祸 mean?
祸 (huò) means misfortune, disaster, calamity. A common word with it is 车祸 (chēhuò), meaning "traffic accident; car crash".
How do you pronounce 祸?
祸 is pronounced huò, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 祸?
The radical of 祸 is 礻, which carries the idea of "spirit". Dictionaries list 祸 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 祸?
The traditional form of 祸 is 旤 and 禍. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 祸 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 祸 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 祸 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the opposite of 祸?
The opposite is 福 (fú), good fortune. The two often appear together, as in the saying 祸福相依 (huò fú xiāng yī), meaning misfortune and fortune depend on each other.
What does 闯祸 mean and who says it?
闯祸 (chuǎnghuò) means to cause trouble or get into trouble, often through carelessness. Parents say it to children a lot, for example 你又闯祸了 (nǐ yòu chuǎnghuò le), meaning you got into trouble again.