(diū): to lose, to put aside, to throw

(diū) is a Chinese character meaning “to lose.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1628 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a lost 厶 jade 玉. Its radical form (one) appears in many related characters such as (, one), (, seven), (sān, three).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to lose
  2. to put aside
  3. to throw

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA lost 厶 jade 玉

Decomposition: ⿱王厶 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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
verbdiū shīto lose5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
diū liǎnto lose face
diū diàoto lose
diū rénto lose face
diū qìto discard
diū rén xiàn yǎnto make an exhibition of oneself
diū miàn zito lose face
diū kāito cast or put aside
diū shǒuto wash one's hands of sth
diū chǒuto lose face
diū dào jiāto lose (face) utterly
diū sān là sìforgetful
diū fèn zi(coll.) to lose face
diū xiàto abandon
diū fān tú fāng chéng(math.) Diophantine equation
zǒu diūto wander off
34
Total compounds
76
As first character
18
As last character
6
As middle character

appears in 34 compound words: 76 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 6 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.

0.6155,484 co-occurrences
shī
0.56514,997 co-occurrences
diào
0.4962,308 co-occurrences
liǎn
0.479534 co-occurrences
nòng
0.404433 co-occurrences
zhì
0.39496 co-occurrences
0.381195 co-occurrences
shī
0.379222 co-occurrences
0.378189 co-occurrences
yuè
0.36487 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

diū lún chě pàoHSK 7+

(idiom) flustered; confused

phrase
diū méi diū yǎnHSK 6+

to wink at sb

phrase
diū méi nòng sèHSK 6+

to wink at sb

phrase
diūrénxiànyǎnHSK 3+

to make a fool of oneself; to make oneself lose face

phrase
diūsānlàsìHSK 4+

to be forgetful

phrase
huī bu liū diūHSK 7+

gloomy and dull (idiom); boring and gray; unpleasantly murky

phrase
suānbuliūdiūHSK 7+

too sour; unpleasantly sour; a bit envious; jealous

noun
diūkuīqìjiǎHSK 5+

to abandon one's armor when fleeing from a defeat

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

diū zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

Though the character "丢" is difficult to write, its meaning is quite interesting.

TvbsFeb 2026

赴日注意!乱“1物”恐触法 日媒:最高罚200万

fù rì zhù yì ! luàn diū 1 wù kǒng chù fǎ rì méi : zuì gāo fá 2 0 0 wàn

Attention to Japan! Throwing "1 thing" indiscriminately may violate the law Japanese media: The maximum fine is 2 million

EttodayFeb 2026

云林大黄狗被人从5楼下“凶手抓到了” 虐狗原因曝光

yún lín dà huáng gǒu bèi rén cóng 5 lóu diū xià xiōng shǒu zhuā dào le nüè gǒu yuán yīn pù guāng

The big yellow dog in Yunlin was dropped from the 5th floor "The murderer was caught" and the reason for the dog abuse was exposed

三立新聞網Feb 2026

大黄狗遭3楼下!肝脏碎裂 民众救援心疼

dà huáng gǒu zāo 3 lóu diū xià ! gān zāng suì liè mín zhòng jiù yuán xīn téng

The big yellow dog was dropped on the 3rd floor! The liver is broken, and the people are distressed

公視新聞網 PnnFeb 2026

北港黄狗疑遭饲主高处下 警厘清其犯案动机

běi gǎng huáng gǒu yí zāo sì zhǔ gāo chǔ diū xià jǐng lí qīng qí fàn àn dòng jī

The Beigang yellow dog was suspected of being dropped by the owner at a height, and the police clarified his motive for committing the crime

EttodayFeb 2026

...星之火足以燎原!永康营业场所角落起火 乱菸蒂惹祸

. . . xīng zhī huǒ zú yǐ 燎 yuán ! yǒng kāng yíng yè chǎng suǒ jiǎo luò qǐ huǒ luàn diū 菸 dì rě huò

... The fire of the stars is enough to set fire to the plains! A fire broke out in the corner of Yongkang's business premises, and littering cigarette butts caused trouble

Tatoeba

汤姆说他了钥匙。

Tāngmǔ shuō tā diū le yàoshi.

Tom said that he lost his key.

Tatoeba

我觉得我把钥匙了。

Wǒ juéde wǒ bǎ yàoshi diū le.

I think I lost my keys.

Tatoeba

到垃圾桶里去。

Gěi diū dào lājītǒng lǐ qù.

Bung it in the bin.

Tatoeba

萨米把凶器进湖里了。

Sà mǐ bǎ xiōngqì diū jìn hú lǐ le.

Sami dropped the murder weapon in a lake.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 丢 (diū) mean in Chinese?
丢 (diū) primarily means "to lose." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1628 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 丢 and 赢?
丢 (diū) and 赢 (yíng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 丢 (lose) vs 赢 (win).
How many strokes does 丢 have?
丢 is written with 6 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 丢?
The radical associated with 丢 is 一 (one). This radical appears in many characters related to one.
What are the components of 丢?
丢 is composed of: 王 (structural), 厶 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱王厶 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 丢?
Common words with 丢 include: 丢脸 (diū liǎn, "to lose face"); 丢掉 (diū diào, "to lose"); 丢人 (diū rén, "to lose face"); 丢失 (diū shī, "to lose"); 丢弃 (diū qì, "to discard"). There are over 34 compound words containing this character.
Is 丢 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 丢 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.