(): to comfort, to console, to stroke

() is a Chinese character meaning “to comfort.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1704 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to comfort
  2. to console
  3. to stroke

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌无 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fǔ yǎngto foster
fǔ mōto gently caress and stroke
ān fǔto placate
ài fǔto caress
fǔ wèito console
fǔ xù jīncompensation payment (for injury)
fǔ píngto flatten
fǔ yǎng fèichild support payment (after a divorce)
fǔ yùto nurture
xún fǔinspector-general of province in Ming and Qing times
fǔ móto stroke
fǔ nòngto fondle
fǔ àito love tenderly
fǔ xù(of an organization that has a duty of care) to give financial support to relatives of sb who has died or suffered se...
fǔ yǎng chéng rénto bring up (a child)
39
Total compounds
74
As first character
18
As last character
8
As middle character

appears in 39 compound words: 74 as the first character, 18 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

xún
0.62432,574 co-occurrences
yǎng
0.61016,652 co-occurrences
0.5903,324 co-occurrences
shùn
0.56812,474 co-occurrences
wèi
0.5193,414 co-occurrences
0.4561,008 co-occurrences
zhāo
0.4514,566 co-occurrences
ān
0.43518,540 co-occurrences
liáo
0.4141,608 co-occurrences
zhōu
0.40511,748 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

fǔyǎngchéngrénHSK 7+

to bring up a child

phrase
èhóufǔbèiHSK 7+

to hold the best strategic positions which will render the enemy helpless; to occupy all military key points

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

出你的证件,配合我们的工作。

qǐng fǔ chū nǐ de zhèng jiàn , pèi gě wǒ men de gōng zuò .

Please present your identification and cooperate with our work.

Vietnam+Mar 2026

2026年青年月:修复遗像 慰伤痛 传递感恩

2 0 2 6 nián qīng nián yuè : xiū fù yí xiàng fǔ wèi shāng tòng chuán dì gǎn ēn

Youth Month 2026: Restoring Portraits, Healing Wounds, and Expressing Gratitude

Investing 香港Mar 2026

油轮开始穿越海峡!哈塞特安市场、特朗普强硬表态, 原油美股齐涨、美...

yóu lún kāi shǐ chuān yuè hǎi xiá ! hā sāi tè ān fǔ shì chǎng , tè lǎng pǔ qiáng yìng biǎo tài , yuán yóu měi gǔ qí zhǎng , měi . . .

Oil tankers begin crossing the strait! Hassett reassures markets, Trump takes a hard line; crude oil and U.S. stocks rise together, U.S....

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

不婚直接生?若要求伴侣养义务、保障继承权 民团:近7成民众接受

bù hūn zhí jiē shēng ? ruò yāo qiú bàn lǚ fǔ yǎng yì wù , bǎo zhàng jì chéng quán mín tuán : jìn 7 chéng mín zhòng jiē shòu

Born directly without marriage? If the obligation to support the partner and the protection of inheritance rights are required by the militia: nearly 70% of the people accept it

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

228事件79周年 台北101点灯盼以爱慰伤痛、携手前行

2 2 8 shì jiàn 7 9 zhōu nián tái běi 1 0 1 diǎn dēng pàn yǐ ài fǔ wèi shāng tòng , xié shǒu qián háng

The 79th anniversary of the 228 Incident Taipei 101 lights up the hope of soothing the pain with love and moving forward hand in hand

東方日報Feb 2026

春雨地八日湿 元宵雷动云掩月 惊蛰前后飘轻丝

chūn yǔ fǔ dì bā rì shī yuán xiāo léi dòng yún yǎn yuè jīng 蛰 qián hòu piāo qīng sī

The spring rain caresses the ground for eight days of wetness, the thunder of the Lantern Festival, the clouds cover the moon, and the light silk flutters before and after the hibernation

Tatoeba

她是怎么养孩子的?

Tā shì zěnme fǔyǎng háizi de?

How does she bring up her children?

Tatoeba

虽然她在日本被养长大,但是她精通英语。

Suīrán tā zài Rìběn bèi fǔyǎng zhǎngdà, dànshì tā jīngtōng Yīngyǔ.

She has a good command of English though she was brought up in Japan.

Tatoeba

她帮助他平了他的悲伤。

Tā bāngzhù tā píngfǔ le tā de bēishāng.

She helped him overcome his sadness.

Tatoeba

我被我的祖母养长大。

Wǒ bèi wǒ de zǔmǔ fǔyǎng zhǎngdà.

I was brought up by my grandmother.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 抚 (fǔ) mean in Chinese?
抚 (fǔ) primarily means "to comfort." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1704 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 抚 have?
抚 is written with 7 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 抚?
The radical associated with 抚 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 抚?
抚 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 无 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌无 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 抚?
Common words with 抚 include: 抚养 (fǔ yǎng, "to foster"); 抚摸 (fǔ mō, "to gently caress and stroke"); 安抚 (ān fǔ, "to placate"); 爱抚 (ài fǔ, "to caress"); 抚慰 (fǔ wèi, "to console"). There are over 39 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 抚 (fǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fǔ: 夫 (husband), 服 (clothes, serve), 符 (mark), 福 (abbr. for Fujian province 福建省), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 抚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 抚 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.