裤 (kù): pants

裤 (kù) is a Chinese character meaning “pants.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 衤 (semantic) and 库 (phonetic). It ranks #2054 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 裤 clothes. Its radical form 衤 (clothing) appears in many related characters such as 衣 (yī, clothing), 表 (biǎo, exterior surface), 装 (zhuāng, dress, install).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. pants

Etymology & Origin

裤

pictophoneticclothes

Decomposition: ⿰衤库 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 裤

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
裤子nounkù zitrousers2
短裤nounduǎn kùshort pants3
牛仔裤nounniú zǎi kùjeans5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
内裤nounnèi kùunderpants
裤裆nounkù dāngcrotch of trousers
长裤nouncháng kùtrousers
裤衩nounkù chǎunderpants
衬裤nounchèn kùunderpants
裤腿nounkù tuǐtrouser leg
灯笼裤noundēng lóng kùbloomers
裤带nounkù dàibelt (in trousers)
裤腰带nounkù yāo dàiwaistband
连裤袜nounlián kù wàpantyhose
裤兜nounkù dōupants pocket
喇叭裤nounlǎ ba kùflared trousers
三角裤nounsān jiǎo kùbriefs
开裆裤nounkāi dāng kùopen-crotch pants (for toddlers)
裤脚kù jiǎothe bottom of a trouser leg
66
Total compounds
24
As first character
65
As last character
11
As middle character

裤 appears in 66 compound words: 24 as the first character, 65 as the last, and 11 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 裤 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

袜wà
0.567248 co-occurrences
叭bā
0.49072 co-occurrences
穿chuān
0.488542 co-occurrences
衬chèn
0.47754 co-occurrences
裙qún
0.470100 co-occurrences
衫shān
0.46778 co-occurrences
仔zǐ
0.457376 co-occurrences
棉mián
0.44471 co-occurrences
腿tuǐ
0.444134 co-occurrences
腰yāo
0.444124 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

勒紧裤带lēijǐn kùdàiHSK 7+

to tighten one's belt; to tighten the purse strings; to be more frugal

verb
纨裤子弟wán kù zǐ dìHSK 2+

variant of 紈絝子弟|纨绔子弟

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条裤子太长了,需要改短一点才能穿。

Zhè tiáo kùzi tài cháng le, xūyào gǎi duǎn yìdiǎn cáinéng chuān.

These pants are too long; they need to be shortened before wearing.

99 健康网Mar 2026

两个男生做下肢运动小腹变大是不是穿错裤子?视觉误差放大问题吗

liǎng gè nán shēng zuò xià zhī yùn dòng xiǎo fù biàn dà shì bù shì chuān cuò kù zǐ ? shì jué wù chā fàng dà wèn tí ma

Two guys are doing lower-body exercises, and their stomachs look bigger—is it because they’re wearing the wrong pants? Is this just an optical illusion?

99 健康网Feb 2026

男科怎么检查?是否需要脱裤子做外生殖器视诊和触诊

nán kē zěn má jiǎn chá ? shì fǒu xū yāo tuō kù zǐ zuò wài shēng zhí qì shì zhěn hé chù zhěn

How to check andrology? Whether it is necessary to take off the pants for external genital examination and palpation

NewsFeb 2026

台中色阿公手伸进7岁孙女内裤 媳妇惊睹直言“恶心”下场判3年半

tái zhōng sè ā gōng shǒu shēn jìn suì sūn nǚ nèi kù xí fù jīng dǔ zhí yán è xīn xià chǎng pàn nián bàn

Taichung's lustful grandfather reached into his 7-year-old granddaughter's underwear, and his daughter-in-law was shocked to see that he was "disgusting" and was sentenced to 3 and a half years

NewsFeb 2026

旅游网红教“饭店咖啡机洗内裤”炎上 IG回应了

lǚ yóu wǎng hóng jiào fàn diàn kā fēi jī xǐ nèi kù yán shàng huí yīng le

Travel Internet celebrities teach "hotel coffee machine washing underwear" on IG responded

NewsFeb 2026

“瑜珈裤时代”爆红—全网疯玩“热狗肠包X” 珍珠...

瑜 珈 kù shí dài bào hóng quán wǎng fēng wán rè gǒu cháng bāo zhēn zhū . . .

"Yoga Pants Era" became popular - the whole network played crazy "Hot Dog Sausage Bun X" Pearl...

Tatoeba

中小企业要勒紧裤带才能存活。

Zhōngxiǎoqǐyè yào lēijǐnkùdài cáinéng cúnhuó.

Small businesses will have to tighten their belts to survive.

Tatoeba

我的牛仔裤破了一个洞。

Wǒ de niúzǎikù pò le yī gè dòng.

I got a hole in my jeans.

Tatoeba

我不能忍受短衬裤。

Wǒ bù néng rěnshòu duǎn chènkù.

I can’t stand panties.

Tatoeba

在西班牙,圣诞节要穿红内裤红内衣。

Zài Xībānyá, Shèngdànjié yào chuān hóng nèikù hóng nèiyī.

In Spain, they wear red boxers or knickers on Christmas.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 衤 (clothes) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced kù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 裤 (kù) mean in Chinese?
裤 (kù) primarily means "pants." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #2054 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 裤 have?
裤 is written with 12 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 裤?
The radical associated with 裤 is 衤 (clothing). This radical appears in many characters related to clothing.
What are the components of 裤?
裤 is composed of: 衤 (semantic), 库 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰衤库 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 裤?
Common words with 裤 include: 裤子 (kù zi, "trousers"); 内裤 (nèi kù, "underpants"); 短裤 (duǎn kù, "short pants"); 牛仔裤 (niú zǎi kù, "jeans"); 裤裆 (kù dāng, "crotch of trousers"). There are over 66 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 裤 (kù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kù: 苦 (bitter, suffer), 库 (warehouse), 哭 (to cry), 酷 (ruthless), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 裤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 裤 and the traditional form is 袴.

Practice writing 裤 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.