HSK 5 · Nature

昆虫 kūnchóng “insect” in Chinese

Traditional 昆蟲

What 昆虫 means

  1. insect

Measure word 只 zhī or 群 qún · 一只昆虫 yì zhī kūnchóng

How to say 昆虫

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale昆kūn1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale虫chóng2nd tone, rising

昆虫 in a sentence

  1. 你吃过昆虫吗？

    Nǐ chīguo kūnchóng ma?

    Have you ever eaten insects?

    Sentence #9467055 from Tatoeba

  2. 这种昆虫在英语中叫什么？

    Zhè zhǒng kūnchóng zài Yīngyǔ zhōng jiào shénme?

    What do you call this insect in English?

    Sentence #1790171 from Tatoeba

  3. 他对收集昆虫很有兴趣。

    Tā duì shōují kūnchóng hěn yǒu xìngqù.

    He’s interested in collecting insects.

    Sentence #348400 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 昆虫 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 昆 (kūn) with each of its parts in a different colour
昆kūnalso used for transliteration
  • 日sun · rì
  • 比compare · bǐ
The character 虫 (chóng) drawn as one shape
虫chónglower form of animal life

虫 is a single shape of 6 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 昆虫

昆 8 strokes · 虫 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 昆虫

More words: Nature & Environment

地震dìzhèn · earthquake风景fēngjǐng · scenery猴子hóuzi · monkey蝴蝶húdié · butterfly老鼠lǎoshǔ · rat龙lóng · dragon陆地lùdì · dry land (as opposed to the sea)煤炭méitàn · coal

FAQs

昆虫 (kūnchóng) means “insect”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it kūnchóng: kūn with a 1st tone, then chóng with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 昆虫 is written 昆蟲. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 只 (zhī) or 群 (qún). For example, one insect is 一只昆虫 (yì zhī kūnchóng).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kunchong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 昆虫 from the suggestions. Typing kunchong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
昆虫 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.