How to Write 熊 (xióng) — Meaning “bear”

Imagine a bear (能) sitting next to a campfire (灬) — the bear is warming its paws. The left side 能 looks like a bear's face and body, while the four dots at the bottom are the fire. This visual helps link the character to a bear by a fire.

Write the top part 能 first: start with the left side (撇, 横, etc.), then the right part (撇, 竖弯钩, etc.), then the two dots inside. Finally add the bottom 灬 as four dots from left to right. The key is to make the top part compact and the bottom dots evenly spaced — do not make the fire too wide or too small.

熊 has a bear meaning and includes the 能 component with fire dots below. 焦 (jiāo) means "burnt" or "scorched" and has a bird (隹) on top with fire below — no 能. 然 (rán) means "so" or "correct" and has a dog (犬) on the left with fire and meat (月) components — not a bear. The key difference: 熊 always contains 能, while 焦 has 隹 and 然 has 犬.

熊 is commonly used to refer to the animal bear, as in 熊猫 (panda) and 狗熊 (black bear or coward). It also appears in the phrase 熊熊大火 (blazing fire) to describe intense flames. Culturally, the panda (熊猫) is a national symbol of China and a popular friendly image, while 熊 can also imply clumsiness or a "big bear" stereotype.

Common words containing 熊 include: 熊猫 (xióng māo) — Panda; 狗熊 (gǒu xióng) — Black bear; coward; 熊熊大火 (xióng xióng dà huǒ) — raging fire; blazing fire.