出 (chū): to go out, to come out, to arise, to occur, to produce, to yield

出 (chū) is a Chinese character meaning “to go out.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 屮 (structural) and 凵 (structural). It ranks #28 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 出 a sprout 屮 growing out of a container 凵. Its radical form 凵 (open mouth) appears in many related characters such as 击 (jī, to hit), 凶 (xiōng, terrible), 凸 (tū, to stick out).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to go out
  2. to come out
  3. to arise
  4. to occur
  5. to produce
  6. to yield

Etymology & Origin

出

ideographicA sprout 屮 growing out of a container 凵

Decomposition: ⿱屮凵 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 出

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
出来verbchū láito come out2
出去verbchū qùto go out2
出现verbchū xiànto appear4
出色adjectivechū sèremarkable5
出发verbchū fāto set off3
演出verbyǎn chūto act (in a play)4
出生verbchū shēngto be born3
付出verbfù chūto pay5
出租车nounchū zū chētaxi1
提出verbtí chūto raise (an issue)4
退出verbtuì chūto withdraw5
出口noun/verbchū kǒuan exit4
发出verbfā chūto issue (an order, decree etc)4
出于verbchū yúdue to6
作出verbzuò chūto put out5
出席verbchū xíto attend5
出门verbchū ménto go out2
出版verbchū bǎnto publish5
出名adjectivechū míngwell-known for sth6
出场verbchū chǎng(of a performer) to come onto the stage to perform6
出售verbchū shòuto sell5
指出verbzhǐ chūto indicate4
杰出adjectivejié chūoutstanding6
出自verbchū zìto come from5
超出verbchāo chūto exceed5
出租verbchū zūto rent4
出差verbchū chāito go on an official or business trip4
突出verb/adjectivetū chūprominent5
出示verbchū shìto show6
外出verbwài chūto go out4
出入nounchū rùto go out and come in6
出院verbchū yuànto leave hospital3
推出verbtuī chūto push out4
出国verbchū guóto go abroad2
出境verbchū jìngto leave a country or region6
出行verbchū xíngto go out somewhere (relatively short trip)4
支出verb/nounzhī chūto spend6
展出verbzhǎn chūto put on display5
输出verbshū chūto output6
出游verbchū yóuto go on a tour6
出力verbchū lìto exert oneself6
产出verbchǎn chūto produce (graduates, breast milk, toxic waste, creative ideas etc)6
派出所nounpài chū suǒlocal police station5
138
Total compounds
56
As first character
40
As last character
4
As middle character

出 appears in 138 compound words: 56 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 4 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 出 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

版bǎn
0.632502,968 co-occurrences
播bō
0.555295,434 co-occurrences
演yǎn
0.541431,536 co-occurrences
提tí
0.521274,732 co-occurrences
现xiàn
0.515214,764 co-occurrences
生shēng
0.489460,052 co-occurrences
社shè
0.483200,226 co-occurrences
指zhǐ
0.474177,108 co-occurrences
推tuī
0.456202,692 co-occurrences
敲qiāo
0.45613,378 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (63)

别出心裁biéchūxīncáiHSK 5+

to try to be different; to be out of the ordinary

phrase
不出所料bùchūsuǒliàoHSK 3+

as expected; within one's predictions

phrase
层出不穷céngchūbùqióngHSK 5+

to emerge in an endless stream; to come thick and fast

phrase
层出叠见céng chū dié xiànHSK 7+

see 層見疊出|层见叠出

phrase
层见迭出céng xiàn dié chūHSK 7+

variant of 層見疊出|层见叠出

phrase
层见叠出céngxiàndiéchūHSK 7+

to occur frequently; to appear repeatedly

phrase
冲口而出chōngkǒu'érchūHSK 5+

to blurt; to speak without thought

phrase
出埃及记Chū-Āijíjì

Exodus (second book of the Bible)

出乎意料chūhūyìliàoHSK 3+

unexpected; unpredicted

phrase
出乎意外chū hū yì wàiHSK 3+

beyond expectation (idiom); unexpected

phrase
出乎预料chū hū yù liàoHSK 4+

beyond expectation (idiom); unexpected

phrase
出口成章chūkǒuchéngzhāngHSK 4+

words flow from the mouth as from the pen of a master; to speak eloquently

phrase

Showing 12 of 63 idioms containing 出.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

出字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

chū zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "出" has different usages in different contexts.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

组图:太阳风暴来袭时 出现令人惊叹的极光

zǔ tú : tài yáng fēng bào lái xí shí chū xiàn lìng rén jīng tàn de jí guāng

Picture: Stunning aurora appears when a solar storm hits

東方日報Feb 2026

出入珠海港车量 单日新高1.54万辆

chū rù zhū hǎi gǎng chē liàng dān rì xīn gāo 1 . 5 4 wàn liàng

The number of vehicles entering and leaving Zhuhai Port reached a new high of 15,400 vehicles in a single day

百度新闻Feb 2026

柴火灶里烧出的“团聚”,藏着最浓的奉贤年味丨有一种....

chái huǒ zào lǐ shāo chū de tuán jù , zàng zhe zuì nóng de fèng xián nián wèi 丨 yǒu yī zhǒng . . . .

The "reunion" burned in the wood stove hides the strongest Fengxian New Year's flavor丨There is a kind....

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国12月实际个人消费支出月率 0.1%,预期0...

měi guó 1 2 yuè shí jì gè rén xiāo fèi zhī chū yuè lǜ 0 . 1 , yù qī 0 . . .

The monthly rate of real personal consumption expenditures in the United States was 0.1%, and the expected 0...

百度新闻Feb 2026

跨区出行需求活跃,冬奥会带火冰雪旅游热

kuà qū chū háng xū qiú huó yuè , dōng ào huì dài huǒ bīng xuě lǚ yóu rè

The demand for cross-regional travel is active, and the Winter Olympics will bring fire to ice and snow tourism

Tatoeba

我出去的时候有人打我电话吗?

Wǒ chūqù de shíhou yǒurén dǎ wǒ diànhuà ma?

Did anyone call me while I was out?

Tatoeba

演出什么时候开始?

Yǎnchū shénme shíhou kāishǐ?

What time does the play begin?

Tatoeba

今晚出去吃怎么样?

Jīnwǎn chūqù chī zěnmeyàng?

How about going out to eat tonight?

Tatoeba

你竟然做出那样的事来,你还是人吗?

Nǐ jìngrán zuòchū nàyàng de shì lái, nǐ háishi rén ma?

It is wicked of you to do such things.

Character Family

凵 Radical Family — Characters sharing the open mouth radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced chū

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 出 (chū) mean in Chinese?
出 (chū) primarily means "to go out." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #28 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 出 and 来?
出 (chū) and 来 (lái) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 出 (go) vs 来 (come).
How many strokes does 出 have?
出 is written with 5 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 出?
The radical associated with 出 is 凵 (open mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to open mouth.
What are the components of 出?
出 is composed of: 屮 (structural), 凵 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱屮凵 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 出?
Common words with 出 include: 出来 (chū lái, "to come out"); 出去 (chū qù, "to go out"); 出现 (chū xiàn, "to appear"); 出色 (chū sè, "remarkable"); 出发 (chū fā, "to set off"). There are over 138 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 出 (chū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chū: 处 (to reside), 除 (to get rid of), 初 (beginning), 楚 (distinct), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 出 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 出 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 出 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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.