HSK 5 · Nature

蝴蝶 húdié “butterfly” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 蝴蝶 means

  1. butterfly

Measure word 只 zhī · 一只蝴蝶 yì zhī húdié

How to say 蝴蝶

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale蝴hú2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale蝶dié2nd tone, rising

蝴蝶 in a sentence

  1. 他对蝴蝶很有研究。

    Tā duì húdié hěn yǒu yánjiū.

    He knows a lot about butterflies.

    Sentence #353629 from Tatoeba

  2. 蝴蝶飞走了。

    Húdié fēi zǒu le.

    The butterfly flew away.

    Sentence #6017478 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 你看看，一只蝴蝶！

    Nǐ kànkan, yì zhī húdié!

    Look, a butterfly!

    Sentence #8932480 from Tatoeba

How 蝴蝶 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 蝴 (hú) with each of its parts in a different colour
蝴hú
  • 虫insect · chóngMeaning part
  • 胡recklessly · húSound part

虫 hints at the meaning (insect); 胡 (hú) hints at the sound. Compare it with hú.

The character 蝶 (dié) with each of its parts in a different colour
蝶diébutterfly
  • 虫insect · chóngMeaning part
  • 枼tableSound part

虫 hints at the meaning (insect); 枼 () hints at the sound. Compare it with dié.

How to write 蝴蝶

蝴 15 strokes · 蝶 15 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

蝴蝶 (húdié) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 蝴蝶 (húdié). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 蝴蝶

More words: Nature & Environment

大象dàxiàng · elephant地震dìzhèn · earthquake风景fēngjǐng · scenery猴子hóuzi · monkey昆虫kūnchóng · insect老鼠lǎoshǔ · rat龙lóng · dragon陆地lùdì · dry land (as opposed to the sea)

FAQs

蝴蝶 (húdié) means “butterfly”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it húdié: hú with a 2nd tone, then dié with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 蝴蝶 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 只 (zhī). For example, one butterfly is 一只蝴蝶 (yì zhī húdié).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hudie with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 蝴蝶 from the suggestions. Typing hudie into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
蝴蝶 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.