混

hún, hùn

昆 + 氵

HSK 3.0Level 6

Definitions

hún (adjective) muddy; mixed; confused

hùn (verb) to mix; to blend; to muddle through; to get by

Etymology

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 昆 represents the sound.

Semantic: 氵 Phonetic: 昆

About

混 means to mix or blend things together, and by extension, to confuse or muddle. It is a phono-semantic compound combining the water radical 氵 (shuǐ), which points to liquids and fluidity, with the phonetic component 昆 (kūn). Although 昆 means elder brother or descendants on its own, here it simply indicates the sound. The water radical suggests the original idea of mixing different liquids until they merge indistinguishably. This sense later expanded to social contexts like mingling in a crowd, and abstract ones such as a confused state of mind.

Etymology Hide

Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

他把水和酒混合了。

Tā bǎ shuǐ hé jiǔ hùnhé le.

He mixed water and wine.

这个地方很混乱。

Zhège dìfāng hěn hǔnluàn.

This place is very chaotic.

他整天在街上混日子。

Tā zhěngtiān zài jiē shàng hùn rìzi.

He loafs around on the street all day.

别把不同的问题混在一起。

Bié bǎ bùtóng de wèntí hùn zài yīqǐ.

Don't mix up different problems.

他试图混入人群中。

Tā shìtú hùnrù rénqún zhōng.

He tried to blend into the crowd.

这种混合物不容易分离。

Zhè zhǒng hùnhéwù bù róngyì fēnlí.

This mixture is not easy to separate.

在混乱中，他失去了方向。

Zài hǔnluàn zhōng, tā shīqùle fāngxiàng.

In the chaos, he lost his direction.

他靠混关系拿到了那份工作。

Tā kào hùn guānxi nádàole nà fèn gōngzuò.

He got that job by leveraging connections.

Related Characters

Component: 昆

Component: 氵

混