糊 hú muddled
muddled; paste; blurry; unclear
How to remember 糊: 米 rice + 胡 recklessly = muddled. After studying all night, the student cooks rice so recklessly that he burns the pot, his head completely muddled.
Component breakdown
糊 = 米 rice + 胡 recklessly
- 米 rice
- 胡 recklessly
After studying all night, the student cooks rice so recklessly that he burns the pot, his head completely muddled.
How it is used
- Bound morpheme with the reading hú covering "muddled, blurry, pasted" - 模糊 (móhu) "vague, blurry" is extremely common for both images and unclear ideas (记忆很模糊 "my memory is hazy").
- 糊涂 (hútu) "muddled, confused" describes a person's thinking, often affectionately for someone absent-minded: 老糊涂了 "gone senile/scatterbrained with age".
- 含糊 (hánhu) "vague, evasive" describes speech or answers that dodge clarity: 别含糊其辞 "don't be evasive".
- Has a second reading hù in 糊弄 (hùnong) "to fool around with, con someone with a sloppy job" - a common colloquial verb worth knowing separately.