How to Write 瑚 (hú) — Meaning “Hu (coral).”

Imagine a coral reef shaped like an ancient Chinese "drum" (a meaning of 胡 in some contexts) made of jade (王). Picture the coral branches forming the curves of the drum to link the sound hú with the visual components.

Write 王 first as three horizontal strokes then a vertical, keeping it narrow. Then add 胡 on the right: start with 古 (horizontal, vertical, horizontal, vertical) and finish with 月 (left vertical, horizontal fold, inner strokes). A common mistake is making the 王 part too wide or misaligning the 月 component vertically with 古.

瑚 (hú) means coral and uses 胡 as its phonetic part, while 球 (qiú) means ball or sphere and uses 求. 琅 (láng) is a type of jade or a sound descriptor, using 良. Visually, 瑚 has the right side 胡 (古 + 月) whereas 球 has 求 and 琅 has 良.

瑚 is almost exclusively found in the word 珊瑚 (shān hú, coral) and related terms like 珊瑚礁 (coral reef) and 珊瑚虫 (coral polyp). Culturally, coral has been prized in China as a symbol of longevity and used in traditional jewelry, especially in the red coral form from the South China Sea.

Common words containing 瑚 include: 珊瑚 (shān hú) — coral; 珊瑚礁 (shān hú jiāo) — Coral reef; 珊瑚虫 (shān hú chóng) — Coral polyp.