稠 (chóu): dense, crowded, thick

稠 (chóu) is a Chinese character meaning “dense.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 禾 (semantic) and 周 (phonetic). It ranks #2894 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 稠 grain. Its radical form 禾 (grain) appears in many related characters such as 秋 (qiū, autumn), 科 (kē, branch of study), 租 (zū, to hire).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 禾 grain13 strokesFrequency #2894禾 semantic周 phonetic

Definitions

  1. dense
  2. crowded
  3. thick

Etymology & Origin

稠

pictophoneticgrain

Decomposition: ⿰禾周 (layout: left-right)

Components:禾semantic周phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Practice writing 稠 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
稠密chóu mìdense
粘稠nián chóuviscous
人口稠密rén kǒu chóu mìpopulous
人烟稠密rén yān chóu mì(idiom) densely populated
地狭人稠dì xiá rén chóu(idiom) small and densely populated
地窄人稠dì zhǎi rén chóusee 地狹人稠|地狭人稠
增稠剂zēng chóu jìthickener
增稠zēng chóuto thicken
黏稠度nián chóu dùviscosity
浓稠nóng chóuthick
稠浊chóu zhuónumerous and confused
11
Total compounds
18
As first character
45
As last character
36
As middle character

稠 appears in 11 compound words: 18 as the first character, 45 as the last, and 36 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 稠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

粘nián
0.5991,806 co-occurrences
黏nián
0.5861,746 co-occurrences
密mì
0.55010,104 co-occurrences
牛niú
0.5344,200 co-occurrences
浓nóng
0.456474 co-occurrences
液yè
0.4461,206 co-occurrences
羊yáng
0.446888 co-occurrences
汁zhī
0.442354 co-occurrences
口kǒu
0.4185,700 co-occurrences
粥zhōu
0.413102 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

人烟稠密rényānchóumìHSK 7+

to be densely populated

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

稠字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。

chóu zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The writing of the character "稠" is quite unique and has left a deep impression on me.

Tatoeba

西里西亚省是波兰人口稠密度最大的地区。

Xīlǐxīyà shěng shì Bōlán rénkǒuchóumì dù zuì dà de dìqū.

The Silesian Voivodeship is the most densely populated region of Poland.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 禾 (grain) component

种zhǒng程chéng秘mì积jī稳wěn秀xiù稿gǎo秒miǎo稀xī穆mù

Related Characters

秋qiū科kē租zū称chèn种zhǒng积jī程chéng秀xiù秘mì移yí

Homophones — Characters pronounced chóu

绸chóu抽chōu筹chóu丑chǒu臭chòu酬chóu愁chóu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 稠 (chóu) mean in Chinese?
稠 (chóu) primarily means "dense." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2894 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 稠 and 细?
稠 (chóu) and 细 (xì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 稠 (thick) vs 细 (thin).
How many strokes does 稠 have?
稠 is written with 13 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 稠?
The radical associated with 稠 is 禾 (grain). This radical appears in many characters related to grain.
What are the components of 稠?
稠 is composed of: 禾 (semantic), 周 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰禾周 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 稠?
Common words with 稠 include: 稠密 (chóu mì, "dense"); 粘稠 (nián chóu, "viscous"); 人口稠密 (rén kǒu chóu mì, "populous"); 人烟稠密 (rén yān chóu mì, "(idiom) densely populated"); 地狭人稠 (dì xiá rén chóu, "(idiom) small and densely populated"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 稠 (chóu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chóu: 绸 ((light) silk), 抽 (to draw out), 筹 (chip (in gambling)), 丑 (clown), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 稠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 稠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.