How to Write 焓 (hán) — Meaning “enthalpy”

Imagine a fire (火) inside a container (含) — think of a closed box holding heat. The pinyin "hán" sounds like "hand," so picture your hand holding a flame to remember "enthalpy" as heat in your hand.

Write the left radical 火 first with three strokes: dot, left-falling, right-falling — keep it narrow. The right side 含 starts with a left-falling and right-falling for the top, then a dot, and finally the bottom 口. A common mistake is making the left radical too wide or forgetting the dot above the 口.

炤 has the right side 召 (calling) and means "to shine" or "illuminate," while 炫 has the right side 玄 (mysterious) and means "dazzling" or "to show off." 焓 uses 含 (contain) and is a scientific term for heat energy, so the right side is the key visual difference.

焓 is a specialized term in physics and chemistry, used mainly in textbooks and scientific papers. It appears in words like 焓值 (enthalpy value), and is not part of daily conversation or the HSK vocabulary list. Most Chinese learners first encounter it in thermodynamics studies.

Common words containing 焓 include: 焓值 (hán zhí) — enthalpy value; 焓变 (hán biàn) — enthalpy change; 比焓 (bǐ hán) — Specific enthalpy.