簇 (cù): (bound form) to cluster, to pile up, cluster, pile, classifier for bunches, clusters, piles etc

簇 (cù) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to cluster.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺮ (semantic) and 族 (phonetic). It ranks #2689 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 簇 bamboo. Its radical form 竹 (bamboo) appears in many related characters such as 笑 (xiào, to laugh), 第 (dì, (prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六[di4 liu4] "sixth")), 等 (děng, to wait for).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 竹 bamboo17 strokesFrequency #2689⺮ semantic族 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to cluster
  2. to pile up
  3. cluster
  4. pile
  5. classifier for bunches, clusters, piles etc

Etymology & Origin

簇

pictophoneticbamboo

Decomposition: ⿱⺮族 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:⺮semantic族phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
簇拥cù yōngto crowd around
簇新cù xīnbrand-new
高维代数簇gāo wéi dài shù cù(math.) higher dimensional algebraic variety
抗原决定簇kàng yuán jué dìng cù(immunology) antigenic determinant
代数簇dài shù cùalgebraic variety (math.)
花团锦簇huā tuán jǐn cùbrightly colored decorations (idiom)
花簇huā cùbunch of flowers
簇射cù shèshower (radiation, particle, etc)
簇茎石竹cù jīng shí zhúboreal carnation or northern pink
攒簇cuán cùto gather closely together
10
Total compounds
40
As first character
60
As last character
0
As middle character

簇 appears in 10 compound words: 40 as the first character, 60 as the last, and 0 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 簇 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

拥yōng
0.428816 co-occurrences
攒cuán
0.42136 co-occurrences
橡xiàng
0.401162 co-occurrences
朵duǒ
0.397228 co-occurrences
叶xié
0.375402 co-occurrences
晶jīng
0.373342 co-occurrences
花huā
0.3691,200 co-occurrences
锦jǐn
0.361216 co-occurrences
茎jīng
0.35648 co-occurrences
枝zhī
0.354192 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

花团锦簇huātuánjǐncùHSK 7+

a mass of rich and colorful decorations

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

簇字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

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

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

Hk01.comFeb 2026

爱泼斯坦案|惊现霍金被比坚尼女郎簇拥照 遗属称是其护理

ài pō sī tǎn àn jīng xiàn huò jīn bèi bǐ jiān ní nǚ láng cù yōng zhào yí shǔ chèn shì qí hù lǐ

Epstein case|Shocking photo of Hawking being surrounded by bikini girls, the bereaved family said it was his care

Character Family

竹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the bamboo radical

笨bèn簸bǒ策cè筹chóu符fú竿gān管guǎn籍jí简jiǎn箭jiàn

Related Characters

笑xiào第dì等děng答dā笔bǐ筷kuài算suàn篇piān篮lán简jiǎn

Homophones — Characters pronounced cù

粗cū促cù醋cù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 簇 (cù) mean in Chinese?
簇 (cù) primarily means "(bound form) to cluster." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2689 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 簇 and 下?
簇 (cù) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 簇 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 簇 have?
簇 is written with 17 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 簇?
The radical associated with 簇 is 竹 (bamboo). This radical appears in many characters related to bamboo.
What are the components of 簇?
簇 is composed of: ⺮ (semantic), 族 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⺮族 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 簇?
Common words with 簇 include: 簇拥 (cù yōng, "to crowd around"); 簇新 (cù xīn, "brand-new"); 高维代数簇 (gāo wéi dài shù cù, "(math.) higher dimensional algebraic variety"); 抗原决定簇 (kàng yuán jué dìng cù, "(immunology) antigenic determinant"); 代数簇 (dài shù cù, "algebraic variety (math.)"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 簇 (cù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cù: 粗 ((of sth long) wide), 促 ((bound form) of short duration), 醋 (vinegar). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 簇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 簇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 簇 with real-time feedback

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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.