妇 (fù): woman, wife

妇 (fù) is a Chinese character meaning “woman, wife.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (structural) and 彐 (structural). It ranks #932 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 妇 simplified form of 婦; a woman 女 with a broom 彐. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. woman, wife

Etymology & Origin

妇

ideographicSimplified form of 婦; a woman 女 with a broom 彐

Decomposition: ⿰女彐 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 妇

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
夫妇nounfū fùa (married) couple5
妇女nounfù nǚwoman5
媳妇nounxí fùdaughter-in-law6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
荡妇noundàng fùprostitute
主妇nounzhǔ fùhousewife
寡妇nounguǎ fuwidow
情妇nounqíng fùmistress
孕妇nounyùn fùpregnant woman
妇人nounfù rénmarried woman
泼妇nounpō fùshrew
妇科nounfù kēgynecology
妇产科nounfù chǎn kēdepartment of gynecology and obstetrics
儿媳妇nounér xí fùdaughter-in-law
贵妇nounguì fùupper-class woman
娼妇nounchāng fùprostitute
产妇nounchǎn fùwoman recuperating after childbirth
妇孺nounfù rúwomen and children
少妇nounshào fùyoung married woman
86
Total compounds
21
As first character
56
As last character
23
As middle character

妇 appears in 86 compound words: 21 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 23 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 妇 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

斑bān
0.59137 co-occurrences
媳xí
0.5861,653 co-occurrences
寡guǎ
0.5822,240 co-occurrences
喂wèi
0.56540 co-occurrences
女nǚ
0.56329,594 co-occurrences
夫fū
0.53516,247 co-occurrences
孕yùn
0.5342,327 co-occurrences
俩liǎ
0.507382 co-occurrences
彻chè
0.48232 co-occurrences
儿ér
0.4603,070 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

儿媳妇儿érxífurHSK 6+

erhua form of 兒媳婦/儿媳妇 (érxífù)

noun
夫唱妇随fūchàngfùsuíHSK 5+

the husband advocates/sings and the wife follows; harmony between husband and wife

phrase
妇道人家fùdaorénjiāHSK 5+

woman

phrase
妇姑勃溪fù gū bó xīHSK 7+

dispute among womenfolk (idiom); family squabbles

phrase
妇女运动fù nǚ yùn dòngHSK 5+

women's movement; feminism

phrase
妇人之仁fùrénzhīrénHSK 7+

soft-hearted

phrase
家庭主妇jiātíng zhǔfùHSK 5+

housewife

noun
良家妇女liáng jiā fù nǚHSK 5+

woman from a respectable family

phrase
匹夫匹妇pǐ fū pǐ fùHSK 5+

(idiom) ordinary people; commoners

phrase
有夫之妇yǒufūzhīfùHSK 5+

woman who already has a husband (and is thus unavailable); married woman

noun
妇孺皆知fùrújiēzhīHSK 7+

understood by everyone; well-known

phrase
奸夫淫妇jiān fū yín fùHSK 7+

adulterous couple

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妇女节那天,公司给所有女员工放了半天假。

Fùnǚjié nà tiān, gōngsī gěi suǒyǒu nǚ yuángōng fàng le bàn tiān jià.

On Women's Day, the company gave all female employees a half-day off.

NewsFeb 2026

食八宝饭误吞枣核 62岁翁肚大如孕妇

shí bā bǎo fàn wù tūn zǎo hé suì wēng dù dà rú yùn fù

62-Year-Old Man's Belly Swells to Pregnant Woman's Size After Swallowing Date Pit While Eating Eight-Treasure Rice

NewsFeb 2026

珍惜生命|秀茂坪顺利邨45岁妇堕楼 昏迷送院抢救不治

zhēn xī shēng mìng xiù mào píng shùn lì 邨 suì fù duò lóu hūn mí sòng yuàn qiǎng jiù bù zhì

Cherish Life | 45-Year-Old Woman Falls from Building in Shui Mau Ping Shun Lee Estate, Dies After Being Hospitalized in Coma

NewsFeb 2026

秀茂坪顺利邨妇人堕楼亡 原因待查

xiù mào píng shùn lì 邨 fù rén duò lóu wáng yuán yīn dài chá

Woman Falls to Her Death at Shui Mei Ping Shun Lee Estate; Cause Under Investigation

百度新闻Feb 2026

马年迎新!湖南省妇幼保健院喜迎24名“小骏马”宝宝

mǎ nián yíng xīn ! hú nán shěng fù yòu bǎo jiàn yuàn xǐ yíng míng xiǎo jùn mǎ bǎo bǎo

The Year of the Horse! Hunan Maternal and Child Health Hospital welcomes 24 "Little Stallion" babies!

Tatoeba

你媳妇怎么样,汤姆?

Nǐ xífù zěnmeyàng, Tāngmǔ?

How's your wife, Tom?

Tatoeba

史密斯夫妇现在分居了。

Shǐmìsī fūfù xiànzài fēnjū le.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith live apart from each other now.

Tatoeba

寡妇为她的丈夫哀悼了很久。

Guǎfu wèi tā de zhàngfu āidào le hěn jiǔ.

The widow mourned her husband for a long time.

Tatoeba

主妇给地毯吸了尘。

Zhǔfù gěi dìtǎn xī le chén.

The homemaker vacuumed the carpet.

Tatoeba

老天!我杀了一个孕妇!

Lǎotiān! wǒ shā le yī gè yùnfù!

Oh my god! I've killed a pregnant woman!

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced fù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 妇 (fù) mean in Chinese?
妇 (fù) primarily means "woman, wife." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #932 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 妇 have?
妇 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 妇?
The radical associated with 妇 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 妇?
妇 is composed of: 女 (structural), 彐 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女彐 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 妇?
Common words with 妇 include: 夫妇 (fū fù, "a (married) couple"); 妇女 (fù nǚ, "woman"); 荡妇 (dàng fù, "prostitute"); 主妇 (zhǔ fù, "housewife"); 寡妇 (guǎ fu, "widow"). There are over 86 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 妇 (fù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fù: 服 (clothes, serve), 夫 (husband), 复 (to go and return), 父 (father), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 妇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 妇 and the traditional form is 婦.

Practice writing 妇 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.