How to Write 攉 (huō) — Meaning “to shovel or scoop”

Imagine your hand (扌) moving suddenly (like 霍 suggests) to scoop up a pile of dirt. Picture a worker with a shovel who quickly (霍) throws soil aside, linking the hand motion to the meaning of shoveling.

This character has 19 strokes, so write the left 扌 narrow and compact, then carefully balance the right side 霍. A common mistake is confusing the bird component 隹 in 霍 with 住 or 佳 — remember 隹 has a short top horizontal and four downward strokes like a bird's tail.

攉 (huō) means to shovel or scoop with a hand tool. 擡 (tái) means to lift or raise something with both hands, and 擢 (zhuó) means to pull out or promote. Visually, 攉 has 霍 on the right, while 擡 has 臺 and 擢 has 翟 — each right side is unique.

攉 appears in technical or labor contexts like mining (攉煤, shoveling coal) and farming (攉土, shoveling soil). It is not common in everyday conversation, so learners may mostly encounter it in manuals or descriptions of manual work, especially in northern Chinese coal-mining regions.

Common words containing 攉 include: 攉土 (huō tǔ) — to shovel soil; 攉煤 (huō méi) — to shovel coal; 攉弄 (huō nòng) — to stir or mess with.