虹 meaning and stroke order
Rainbow
How to write 虹, stroke by stroke
9 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 虹
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- rainbow
How 虹 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Insect.
虫 gives the meaning and 工 hints at the sound.
Radical: 虫 (insect), shared by 197 characters on this site.
How to remember 虹
虹 combines 虫 (insect, the meaning part) with 工 (gōng, the sound part). Picture a long, colorful creature 虫 arching across the sky, and remember that 工 gives the "-ong" sound in hóng.
虹 rarely appears alone in everyday speech. People usually say 彩虹 (cǎihóng) for rainbow, and 虹 also appears in the anatomy word 虹膜 (hóngmó), the iris of the eye. Example: 雨后天上出现了彩虹。(Yǔ hòu tiān shàng chūxiàn le cǎihóng.) After the rain, a rainbow appeared in the sky.
Common mistake: Learners often read 虹 as gōng because of the phonetic part 工, but the correct reading is hóng with a rising second tone. Also do not confuse it with 红 (hóng, red). They sound the same, but 红 has the silk radical 纟 instead of 虫.
Common words with 虹
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 彩虹 | cǎihóng | rainbow | HSK 7-9 |
| 虹膜 | hóngmó | iris (of an eye) |
虹 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 虹
How many strokes are in 虹?
虹 is written with 9 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 虹 mean?
虹 (hóng) means rainbow. A common word with it is 彩虹 (cǎihóng), meaning "rainbow".
How do you pronounce 虹?
虹 is pronounced hóng, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 虹?
The radical of 虹 is 虫, which carries the idea of "insect". Dictionaries list 虹 under this radical.
Is 虹 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 虹 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why does 虹 have the insect radical if a rainbow is not an insect?
The 虫 component marks the semantic category in this pictophonetic character, and 工 supplies the sound. 虫 covered a broad group of creatures, so it was used for words that are not insects in the modern sense.
Can I say just 虹 to mean rainbow?
You will see 虹 alone in written, poetic, or formal Chinese, but in normal conversation 彩虹 (cǎihóng) is the natural choice. Saying only 虹 in speech can sound bookish or unclear.