催 (cuī): to urge, to press, to prompt
催 (cuī) is a Chinese character meaning “to urge.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (semantic) and 崔 (phonetic). It ranks #2032 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 催 person. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).
Definitions
- to urge
- to press
- to prompt
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 催 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 催眠verb | cuī mián | to lull to sleep |
| 催化剂noun | cuī huà jì | catalyst |
| 催眠术noun | cuī mián shù | hypnotism |
| 催促verb | cuī cù | to urge |
| 催泪弹noun | cuī lèi dàn | tear bomb |
| 催产素noun | cuī chǎn sù | oxytocin |
| 催化verb | cuī huà | to catalyze (a reaction) |
| 催眠曲noun | cuī mián qǔ | lullaby |
| 催眠药noun | cuī mián yào | soporific drug |
| 催命verb | cuī mìng | to press sb to death |
| 催生verb | cuī shēng | to pressure a younger relative to hurry up and have a baby |
| 催产verb | cuī chǎn | to induce labor |
| 催讨verb | cuī tǎo | to demand repayment of debt |
| 催熟verb | cuī shú | to promote ripening of fruit |
| 催吐剂noun | cuī tù jì | an emetic |
催 appears in 48 compound words: 88 as the first character, 4 as the last, and 8 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 催 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (3)
Example Sentences
客户催得很急，我们必须加快进度。
Kèhù cuī de hěn jí, wǒmen bìxū jiākuài jìndù.
The client is urging us urgently; we must speed up the progress.
护花使者|广东美女拜年遭亲戚催婚 6岁侄仔妙语反击|有片
hù huā shǐ zhě guǎng dōng měi nǚ bài nián zāo qīn qī cuī hūn 6 suì zhí zǐ miào yǔ fǎn jī yǒu piàn
Flower Protector|Guangdong beauty was urged to get married by relatives for New Year's greetings, and her 6-year-old nephew counterattacked with a witty remark|There is a film
...的反乌托邦就业危机:Nvidia的又一个催化剂?
. . . de fǎn wū tuō bāng jiù yè wēi jī : N v i d i a de yòu yī gè cuī huà jì ?
... Thedystopian Jobs Crisis: Another Catalyst for Nvidia?
...5年第四季度业绩未达预期,推出1亿美元"催化剂项目"
. . . 5 nián dì sì jì dù yè jì wèi dá yù qī , tuī chū 1 yì měi yuán cuī huà jì xiàng mù
... Fourth-quarter results fell short of expectations, launching a $100 million "catalyst project"
...025年第四季业绩未达预期,推出1亿美元催化剂计划
. . . 0 2 5 nián dì sì jì yè jì wèi dá yù qī , tuī chū 1 yì měi yuán cuī huà jì jì huá
... The fourth quarter of 2025 performance fell short of expectations, and a $100 million catalyst plan was launched
(新春走基层)海外订单催热“淡季”生产线 广州南沙..
xīn chūn zǒu jī céng hǎi wài dìng shàn cuī rè dàn jì shēng chǎn xiàn guǎng zhōu nán shā . .
(Chinese New Year) Overseas Orders Heat Up "Off-Season" Production Lines Guangzhou Nansha...
溪流潺潺，催我入眠。
Xīliú chánchán, cuī wǒ rùmián.
The murmur of the brook lulls me to sleep.
蟋蟀的叫声与蛙鸣催我入眠。
Xīshuài de jiàoshēng yǔ wā míng cuī wǒ rùmián.
The sound of crickets chirping and frogs croaking lulls me to sleep.
警方将催泪弹投掷到了建筑中。
Jǐngfāng jiāng cuīlèidàn tóuzhì dào le jiànzhù zhōng.
The cops threw tear-gas bombs into the building.
慧如那个简报档还没传喔？客户在催。
Huì rú nàge jiǎnbào dǎng hái méi chuán ō? kèhù zài cuī.
Hasn't Huiru sent the slides yet? The client's pushing.
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 亻 (person) component
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 催 (cuī) mean in Chinese?
How many strokes does 催 have?
What is the radical of 催?
What are the components of 催?
What are common words containing 催?
What characters sound the same as 催 (cuī)?
Is 催 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 催 with real-time feedback
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