春 (chūn): spring

春 (chūn) is a Chinese character meaning “spring.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (semantic). It ranks #921 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 春 sun. Its radical form 日 (sun) appears in many related characters such as 日 (rì, sun, day), 早 (zǎo, early, morning), 时 (shí, time, hour).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 3Radical: 日 sun9 strokesFrequency #921日 semantic

Definitions

  1. spring

Etymology & Origin

春

pictophoneticsun

Components:日semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 春

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
春天nounchūn tiānspring (season)3
青春nounqīng chūnyouth6
青春期nounqīng chūn qīpuberty6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
春季nounchūn jìspringtime
春假nounchūn jiàspring break
常春藤nouncháng chūn téngivy
春光nounchūn guāngscenes of springtime
春梦nounchūn mèngspring dream
春卷nounchūn juǎnegg roll
春日nounchūn rìspringtime
春药nounchūn yàoaphrodisiac
长春proper-nouncháng chūnsee 長春市|长春市
春风nounchūn fēngspring breeze
青春痘qīng chūn dòuacne
开春verbkāi chūnbeginning of spring
春色nounchūn sècolors of spring
春心nounchūn xīnamorous feelings
春秋nounchūn qiūspring and autumn
100
Total compounds
57
As first character
33
As last character
10
As middle character

春 appears in 100 compound words: 57 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 10 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 春 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

青qīng
0.56240,550 co-occurrences
秋qiū
0.53933,382 co-occurrences
季jì
0.48426,974 co-occurrences
节jié
0.4347,311 co-occurrences
长cháng
0.41021,088 co-occurrences
层céng
0.409132 co-occurrences
夏xià
0.3987,232 co-occurrences
坊fāng
0.3952,604 co-occurrences
秧yāng
0.387226 co-occurrences
晓xiǎo
0.3871,466 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (23)

春风化雨chūnfēnghuàyǔHSK 3+

benefits of education; positive influence of a teacher

phrase
春光明媚chūnguāngmíngmèiHSK 7+

the scenery of spring is bright and beautiful

phrase
春暖花开chūn nuǎn huā kāiHSK 4+

(lit.) springtime when the weather is warm and flowers are in bloom (idiom); (fig.) a time of renewal and flourishing

phrase
春秋大梦chūnqiūdàmèngHSK 4+

fanciful dream; impracticable fantasy; pipe dream

phrase
春秋鼎盛chūnqiūdǐngshèngHSK 7+

to be in the prime of life

phrase
春秋三传Chūnqiū SānzhuànHSK 5+

Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals

春秋时代Chūnqiū ShídàiHSK 5+

Spring and Autumn Period

春秋战国Chūnqiū ZhànguóHSK 5+

Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period of China

春夏秋冬chūnxiàqiūdōngHSK 3+

four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter; a year

phrase
恒春半岛Héngchūn BàndǎoHSK 7+

Hengchun Peninsula (southern tip of Taiwan)

枯木逢春kūmùféngchūnHSK 7+

to get a new lease of life in a desperate situation

phrase
吕氏春秋LǚshìchūnqiūHSK 7+

Lüshi Chunqiu; Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals

Showing 12 of 23 idioms containing 春.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

春节是中国最重要的传统节日,人们会回家与家人团聚。

Chūnjié shì Zhōngguó zuì zhòngyào de chuántǒng jiérì, rénmen huì huí jiā yǔ jiārén tuánjù.

Spring Festival is China's most important traditional holiday; people return home to reunite with family.

百度新闻Feb 2026

(新春走基层)从塔里木河到钱塘江:一颗“石榴籽...

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng cóng tǎ lǐ mù hé dào qián táng jiāng yī kē shí 榴 籽 . . .

(Spring Festival) From Tarim River to Qiantang River: A "Pomegranate Seed"...

百度新闻Feb 2026

阿福上春晚后爆火登顶AppStore:这4个宝藏...

ā fú shǎng chūn wǎn hòu bào huǒ dēng dǐng zhè gě bǎo zàng . . .

Afu tops AppStore after bursting into flames at Spring Festival Gala: These 4 treasures...

百度新闻Feb 2026

湖北文旅集团AI守岁人护新春 科技赋能年味浓

hú běi wén lǚ jí tuán shǒu suì rén hù xīn chūn kē jì fù néng nián wèi nóng

Hubei Culture and Tourism Group AI year-keeper to protect the New Year Technology empowers the flavor of the year

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走军营丨北部战区陆军某边防旅巡逻艇中队守...

xīn chūn zǒu jūn yíng 丨 běi bù zhàn ōu lù jūn mǒu biān fáng lǚ xún luó tǐng zhōng duì shǒu . . .

The new spring walk military camp丨Army of the northern theater of war a border guard brigade patrol boat squadron guard...

百度新闻Feb 2026

在春晚与沈腾马丽同框的机器人 在全国100多...

zài chūn wǎn yú 沈 téng mǎ lí tóng kuàng de jī qì rén zài quán guó duō . . .

The robot that shared the frame with Shen Teng and Ma Li at the Spring Festival Gala in more than 100...

Tatoeba

春天和秋天,你更喜欢哪个?

Chūntiān hé qiūtiān, nǐ gèng xǐhuan něige?

Which do you prefer, spring or autumn?

Tatoeba

冬天到了,春天还会远吗?

Dōngtiān dào le, chūntiān hái huì yuǎn ma?

Winter is here, spring can't be far?

Tatoeba

你知道春卷为什么叫春卷吗?

Nǐ zhīdào chūnjuǎn wèishénme jiào chūnjuǎn ma?

Do you know why spring rolls are called spring rolls?

Tatoeba

一场春雨使花朵回复了生气。

Yī chǎng chūnyǔ shǐ huāduǒ huífù le shēngqì.

A spring rain revived the flower.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 日 (sun) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced chūn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 春 (chūn) mean in Chinese?
春 (chūn) primarily means "spring." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #921 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 春 have?
春 is written with 9 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 春?
The radical associated with 春 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 春?
春 is composed of: 日 (semantic). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 春?
Common words with 春 include: 春天 (chūn tiān, "spring (season)"); 青春 (qīng chūn, "youth"); 青春期 (qīng chūn qī, "puberty"); 春季 (chūn jì, "springtime"); 春假 (chūn jià, "spring break"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 春 (chūn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chūn: 纯 (pure), 蠢 (stupid), 唇 (lip), 醇 (alcohol). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 春 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 春 and the traditional form is 旾.

Practice writing 春 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.