What does 和 mean in Chinese?

和 (hé) means "and" in Chinese. The new HSK exam expects you to recognise it at HSK 1.

How do you write 和?

和 is written with 8 strokes, starting from the 口 (mouth) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 和?

The radical of 和 is 口 (mouth, Kangxi radical #30). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 可, 告, 后, 名.

How many strokes does 和 have?

The Chinese character 和 has 8 strokes.

What HSK level is 和?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 和 is a character to recognise at HSK 1 and to write by hand at HSK 2 (the handwriting list HSK 1 and 2 share).

和 (hé): Meaning, Stroke Order, Radical & Examples

和

hé

and

HSK 1 character 8 strokes Radical: 口 (mouth)

Quick Answer

和 (hé) means "and" with 8 strokes, radical 口 (mouth), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 和 →Animated stroke-order for 和 →

Pronunciation

hé

Meaning

Primary: and

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

Oracle bone forms show a pictograph of a multi-pipe reed instrument, the ancestor of the 龢 character, depicting a mouth organ with several tubes bound together. The later standard form 和 is a phono-semantic compound: 禾 (grain, phonetic) plus 口 (mouth, semantic). Some scholars argue 禾+口 originally depicted eating grain or singing in unison with the pipes.

Form evolution

The early pictographic form 龢 (with 龠, the pipe component) coexisted with 和 in bronze inscriptions, with 和 gradually winning out through seal and clerical script. By the Han dynasty 和 was standard, while 龢 survived only in names and archaic contexts. The modern楷书 form places 禾 on the left and 口 on the right, though a right-禾 left-口 variant also existed.

How the meaning evolved

From the idea of musical instruments sounding together came the core meaning of harmony and accord. This extended to peace, gentleness, concord between people, and grammatically to the conjunction 'and'. The 'and' usage is relatively late in written Chinese and remains more common in Mandarin than in Cantonese or classical texts.

Cultural note

和 is central to Confucian ethics through the phrase 和而不同 (harmony without uniformity) from the Analects. Japan adopted 和 as a self-designation (和風, 大和), a usage that feeds back into how Chinese learners sometimes misread the character's connotations.

Mnemonic

Grain by the mouth — peace and harmony

Decomposition

和=禾component+口radical

Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.

Basic info

Pinyin	hé
Meanings	and
Stroke count	8 strokes
Radical	口 (#30: mouth)
New HSK exam	Recognise at HSK 1, write by hand at HSK 1-2
Frequency	#266 most common

Example sentences

你和我一起去。
Nǐ hé wǒ yìqǐ qù.
You and I go together.
From 和 (HSK 1)
今天很暖和。
Jīntiān hěn nuǎnhuo.
It's warm today.
From 暖和 (HSK 4)
世界人民都渴望和平。
Shìjiè rénmín dōu kěwàng hépíng.
People around the world yearn for peace.
From 和平 (HSK 6)

Words containing 和

Word	Pinyin	Meaning	HSK
和	hé	and	HSK 1
暖和	nuǎnhuo	warm	HSK 4
和平	hépíng	peace	HSK 6
饱和	bǎohé	saturation, saturated	HSK 7-9
不和	bùhé	not get along well, discord
调和	tiáohé	to harmonize, to mediate	HSK 7-9
附和	fùhè	to parrot, to echo	HSK 7-9
共和	gònghé	republic