HSK 6 · Verbs

混淆 hùnxiáo “to confuse” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 混淆 means

  1. to confuse
  2. to mix up
  3. to blur
  4. to obscure
  5. to mislead

How to say 混淆

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale混hùn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale淆xiáo2nd tone, rising

混淆 in a sentence

  1. 这两个词容易混淆。

    Zhè liǎng ge cí róngyì hùnxiáo.

    These two words are easily confused.

    Sentence #5869911 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 我又把它们混淆了！

    Wǒ yòu bǎ tāmen hùnxiáo le!

    I mixed them up again!

    Sentence #10230471 from Tatoeba

  3. 不要把奥地利和澳大利亚混淆。

    Búyào bǎ Àodìlì hé Àodàlìyà hùnxiáo.

    Don’t confuse Austria with Australia.

    Sentence #679399 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 混淆 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 混 (hùn) with each of its parts in a different colour
混hùnto mix
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 昆elder brother · kūnSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 昆 (kūn) hints at the sound. Compare it with hùn.

The character 淆 (xiáo) with each of its parts in a different colour
淆xiáoconfused and disorderly
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 肴cooked or prepared meat · yáoSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 肴 (yáo) hints at the sound. Compare it with xiáo.

How to write 混淆

混 11 strokes · 淆 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 混淆

Words with 混

混合hùnhé · to mix混乱hùnluàn · chaos混浊hùnzhuó · murky

More words: Thinking & Talking

恍然大悟huǎngrándàwù · to suddenly realise呼唤hūhuàn · to call回顾huígù · to look back忽略hūlüè · to overlook呼吁hūyù · to appeal鉴别jiànbié · to distinguish鉴定jiàndìng · to appraise检讨jiǎntǎo · self-criticism

FAQs

混淆 (hùnxiáo) means “to confuse” or “to mix up”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it hùnxiáo: hùn with a 4th tone, then xiáo with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 混淆 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hunxiao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 混淆 from the suggestions. Typing hunxiao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
混淆 is an HSK 6 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.