huó

Traditional: 活

#1143 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to live, to be alive; lively

Word origin

A phono-semantic compound with the water radical and a phonetic element, originally the sound of flowing water and by extension vitality. It means to live or be alive.

Origin
phono-semantic compound
Root
氵 (water) + 舌 (shé, phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 活

Examples

He is still alive.

This fish is alive.

People should live well.

She lives very happily.

Flowers need water to live.

活 (huó) means to live, to be alive, and as an adjective lively or living. It contrasts with 死, to die.

Appears in 3 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 活.

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This word is part of lesson 23.