六 (liù): six, 6, used in place names

六 (liù) is a Chinese character meaning “six.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亠 (structural) and 八 (structural). It ranks #478 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. six
  2. 6
  3. used in place names

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

Practice writing 六 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 六

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
五颜六色phrasewǔ yán liù sèmulticolored5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
周六nounzhōu liùSaturday
星期六nounxīng qī liùSaturday
十六numeralshí liùsixteen
六月nounliù yuèJune
六十numeralliù shísixty
礼拜六nounlǐ bài liùSaturday
六月份nounliù yuè fènJune
六分之一liù fēn zhī yīone sixth
五脏六腑phrasewǔ zàng liù fǔfive viscera and six bowels (TCM)
六合nounliù héthe six directions (north, south, east, west, up, down)
六亲不认phraseliù qīn bù rènnot recognizing one's family (idiom)
六四proper-nounliù sìrefers to Tiananmen incident of 4th June 1989
六边形nounliù biān xínghexagon
十六进制shí liù jìn zhìhexadecimal
六经proper-nounliù jīngSix Classics, namely: Book of Songs 詩經|诗经, Book of History 尚書|尚书, Book of Rites 儀禮|仪礼[Yi2 li...
100
Total compounds
66
As first character
9
As last character
25
As middle character

六 appears in 100 compound words: 66 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 25 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 六 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

十shí
0.556295,977 co-occurrences
第dì
0.509195,422 co-occurrences
卷juǎn
0.50243,140 co-occurrences
百bǎi
0.47537,930 co-occurrences
缸gāng
0.4503,658 co-occurrences
七qī
0.44230,468 co-occurrences
五wǔ
0.44246,450 co-occurrences
二èr
0.43670,602 co-occurrences
逢féng
0.4306,230 co-occurrences
四sì
0.42548,336 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (22)

军情六处Jūnqíng Liù ChùHSK 5+

Secret Intelligence Service (SIS); MI6

六分仪座LiùfēnyízuòHSK 6+

Sextans

六亲不认liùqīnbùrènHSK 4+

to not recognise any of one's relatives

phrase
六亲无靠liù qīn wú kàoHSK 5+

orphaned of all one's immediate relatives (idiom); no one to rely on; left to one's own devices

phrase
六神无主liù shén wú zhǔHSK 5+

out of one's wits (idiom); distracted; stunned

phrase
六十四卦liù shí sì guàHSK 7+

the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes 易經|易经

phrase
六四事件Liù-Sì ShìjiànHSK 1+

June Fourth Incident

七情六欲qīqíngliùyùHSK 6+

various emotions and desires

phrase
三茶六饭sān chá liù fànHSK 1+

lit. to offer three kinds of tea and six different dishes; to be extremely considerate towards guests (idiom)

phrase
三姑六婆sāngūliùpóHSK 5+

women with disreputable or illegal professions; (female) gossipmongers

phrase
三十六计Sānshíliù JìHSK 4+

Thirty-Six Stratagems

三头六臂sāntóuliùbìHSK 6+

(having) superhuman powers

phrase

Showing 12 of 22 idioms containing 六.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他每天早上六点起床,然后去公园跑步。

Tā měitiān zǎoshang liù diǎn qǐchuáng, ránhòu qù gōngyuán pǎobù.

He gets up at six o'clock every morning and then goes to the park for a run.

StheadlineFeb 2026

将军澳景林邨六旬汉倒毙寓所 单位传臭味保安报警揭发

jiāng jūn ào jǐng lín 邨 liù xún hàn dǎo bì yù suǒ dān wèi chuán chòu wèi bǎo ān bào jǐng jiē fā

A sixty-year-old man in King Lam Estate, Tseung Kwan O, collapsed and died in his apartment, and the unit reported a foul smell, and the security guard called the police

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

出国荷包失血!泰国六大机场6月起国际离境费大涨53%

chū guó hé bāo shī xiě ! tài guó liù dà jī chǎng 6 yuè qǐ guó jì lí jìng fèi dà zhǎng 5 3

Blood loss in the wallet abroad! Thailand's six major airports have seen a 53% increase in international departure fees since June

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

从六星连珠回看“七星连珠”久传不衰的影响力

cóng liù xīng lián zhū huí kàn qī xīng lián zhū jiǔ chuán bù shuāi de yǐng xiǎng lì

Looking back at the long-standing influence of the "Seven Star Couplet" from the six-star lineup

百度新闻Feb 2026

排山倒海 扑面而来!六百只宋代瓷碗在这叠成墙

pái shān dǎo hǎi pū miàn ér lái ! liù bǎi zhī sòng dài cí wǎn zài zhè dié chéng qiáng

Overwhelming and coming! Six hundred Song Dynasty porcelain bowls are stacked on this wall

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|超六成受访青年认为购买潮玩盲盒是“为情..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng chāo liù chéng shòu fǎng qīng nián rèn wéi gòu mǎi cháo wán máng hé shì wéi qíng . .

Over 60% of the young people surveyed think that buying a blind box is "for the love of...

Tatoeba

每月六百元,每周一天休息,行吗?

Měiyuè liù bǎi yuán, měizhōu yī tiān xiūxi, xíng ma?

Six hundred dollars a month, with a day rest every week. That works for you?

Tatoeba

你星期六要上学吗?

Nǐ Xīngqīliù yào shàngxué ma?

Do you have school on Saturdays?

Tatoeba

你周六有什么计划?

Nǐ Zhōuliù yǒu shénme jìhuà?

Do you have any plans for Saturday?

Tatoeba

爲什麽你星期六來不了?

Wèishénme nǐ Xīngqīliù láibuliǎo?

Why couldn't you come on Saturday?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced liù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 六 (liù) mean in Chinese?
六 (liù) primarily means "six." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #478 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 六 have?
六 is written with 4 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 六?
The radical associated with 六 is 八 (eight). This radical appears in many characters related to eight.
What are the components of 六?
六 is composed of: 亠 (structural), 八 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱亠八 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 六?
Common words with 六 include: 周六 (zhōu liù, "Saturday"); 星期六 (xīng qī liù, "Saturday"); 十六 (shí liù, "sixteen"); 六月 (liù yuè, "June"); 六十 (liù shí, "sixty"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 六 (liù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liù: 流 (to flow), 留 (to stay, to keep), 刘 ((classical) a type of battle-ax), 溜 (to slip away), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 六 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 六 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 六 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.