(chǔ): foundation

(chǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “foundation.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1013 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, stone. Its radical form (stone) appears in many related characters such as (què, certain, true), (wǎn, bowl), (pèng, to touch, to bump).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. foundation

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticstone

Decomposition: ⿰石出 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounjī chǔbase4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jīng jì jī chǔsocio-economic base
jī chǔ jiào yùelementary education
jī chǔ wèn tíbasic issue
lǐ lùn jī chǔtheoretical foundation
xiàn jīn jī chǔcash basis (accounting)
yīng jì jī chǔaccruals basis (accounting)
jī chǔ shè shī jí fú wù(computing) infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
jī chǔ jié gòuinfrastructure
jī chǔ shè shīinfrastructure
jī chǔ bìngunderlying medical condition
jī chǔ sù lǜbasic rate (as in ISDN)
jī chǔ kèbasic course
líng jī chǔno prior study (in an area of learning)
14
Total compounds
0
As first character
43
As last character
57
As middle character

appears in 14 compound words: 0 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 57 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.734272,881 co-occurrences
shī
0.52130,768 co-occurrences
shè
0.50536,582 co-occurrences
shàng
0.45671,136 co-occurrences
diàn
0.4392,064 co-occurrences
zhuāng
0.417468 co-occurrences
lùn
0.4067,662 co-occurrences
wéi
0.40345,522 co-occurrences
0.4002,190 co-occurrences
xué
0.36017,472 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

jīchǔ jiàoyùHSK 4+

basic education

noun
jīchǔ shèshīHSK 5+

infrastructure

noun

Showing 2 of 3 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

打好基对学习任何技能都很重要,不能急于求成。

Dǎ hǎo jīchǔ duì xuéxí rènhé jìnéng dōu hěn zhòngyào, bùnéng jíyú qiúchéng.

Laying a good foundation is important for learning any skill; you can't rush for quick results.

TechnewsFeb 2026

... ART 失效,关税法源转换未动摇协议基

. . . A R T shī xiào , guān shuì fǎ yuán zhuǎn huàn wèi dòng yáo xié yì jī chǔ

... ART lapses, and the tariff law source conversion does not shake the basis of the agreement

InvestingFeb 2026

花旗组建AI基设施团队,抢占数据中心热潮——彭博社

huā qí zǔ jiàn A I jī chǔ shè shī tuán duì , qiǎng zhàn shǔ jù zhōng xīn rè cháo — — 彭 bó shè

Citigroup builds AI infrastructure team to seize the data center boom - Bloomberg

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...召!赖清德致上最高敬意:为民主留下深厚基

. . . zhào ! lài qīng dé zhì shàng zuì gāo jìng yì : wéi mín zhǔ liú xià shēn hòu jī chǔ

... Call! Lai Qingde paid the highest respect: leave a deep foundation for democracy

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...征15%关税 专家:“B计画”也无法律基

. . . zhēng 1 5 guān shuì zhuān jiā : B jì huà yě wú fǎ lǜ jī chǔ

... Impose a 15% tariff Expert: "Plan B" also has no legal basis

百度新闻Feb 2026

2025年国家开发银行发放公路基设施贷款超360..

nián guó jiā kāi fā yín háng fā fàng gōng lù jī chǔ shè shī dài kuǎn chāo . .

2025 NDB disburses over 360 highway infrastructure loans...

Tatoeba

尊重法律是我们社会的基

Zūnzhòng fǎlǜ shì wǒmen shèhuì de jīchǔ.

Respect for law is fundamental to our society.

Tatoeba

物理是基自然科学。

Wùlǐ shì jīchǔ zìrán kēxué.

Physics is the basic physical science.

Tatoeba

丹甚至没有上过基解剖课。

Dān shènzhì méiyǒu shàng guo jīchǔ jiěpōu kè.

Dan didn't even take basic anatomy classes.

Tatoeba

这是建立在猜测的基上。

Zhè shì jiànlì zài cāicè de jīchǔ shàng.

It is founded on supposition.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced chǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 础 (chǔ) mean in Chinese?
础 (chǔ) primarily means "foundation." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1013 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 础 and 屈?
础 (chǔ) and 屈 (qū) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 石 vs 尸 (same 出 component).
How many strokes does 础 have?
础 is written with 10 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 础?
The radical associated with 础 is 石 (stone). This radical appears in many characters related to stone.
What are the components of 础?
础 is composed of: 石 (semantic), 出 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰石出 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 础?
Common words with 础 include: 基础 (jī chǔ, "base"); 经济基础 (jīng jì jī chǔ, "socio-economic base"); 基础教育 (jī chǔ jiào yù, "elementary education"); 基础问题 (jī chǔ wèn tí, "basic issue"); 理论基础 (lǐ lùn jī chǔ, "theoretical foundation"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 础 (chǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chǔ: 出 (to go out), 初 (beginning), 除 (to get rid of), 厨 (kitchen), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 础 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 础 and the traditional form is 礎.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.