洪 (hóng) is a Chinese character meaning “flood”. It is written from 氵 (water (left-side form)) and 共 (together; in common), side by side, and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “flood”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
氵 + 共
Left–right structure
Structure from: 说文解字: 洪，洚水也。从水共聲
Memory aid
Water (氵) on the left, 共 "together" on the right: every stream arrives together at once — a flood.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 洪水hóng shuǐflood; floodwater洪 = hóngHSK 5
- 洪亮hóng liàngloud and clear; resonant洪 = hóng
- 洪涝hóng làofloods and waterlogging洪 = hóng
Go deeper
All readings
flood; vast
flood; deluge; vast, grand (of water, or of a big resonant sound)
大水，如洪水；也表示大、宏大，如洪亮。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 洪水hóng shuǐflood; floodwater洪 = hóngHSK 5
- 洪亮hóng liàngloud and clear; resonant洪 = hóng
- 洪涝hóng làofloods and waterlogging洪 = hóng
Sound component
共 family onset shift
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 洪 mean?
洪 (hóng) means flood; deluge; vast, grand (of water, or of a big resonant sound).
How do you pronounce 洪?
It is pronounced hóng.
What parts is 洪 made of?
氵 (water (left-side form)) and 共 (together; in common), side by side. The recorded source is: 说文解字: 洪，洚水也。从水共聲. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 洪 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 洪?
水. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 洪?
Common ones are 洪水 and 洪亮. The reading of 洪 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.