硫 (liú): sulfur (chemistry)

硫 (liú) is a Chinese character meaning “sulfur (chemistry).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 石 (stone). It ranks #2730 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 石 stone12 strokesFrequency #2730

Definitions

  1. sulfur (chemistry)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
硫磺liú huángvariant of 硫黃|硫黄[liu2 huang2]
硫酸liú suānsulfuric acid H2SO4
硫化氢liú huà qīnghydrogen sulfide H2S
硫酸盐liú suān yánsulfate
二氧化硫èr yǎng huà liúsulfur dioxide SO2
硫化liú huàvulcanization (curing rubber using sulfur and heat)
亚硫酸yà liú suānsulfurous acid H2SO3
六氟化硫liù fú huà liúsulfur hexafluoride
二硫键èr liú jiàndisulfide (chemistry)
次亚硫酸钠cì yà liú suān nàsodium hyposulfide Na2S2O3 (hypo)
二硫化碳èr liú huà tàncarbon disulfide
硫球liú qiúLuzon, island of the Philippines
硫黄liú huángsulfur
二硫基琥珀酸钠èr liú jī hǔ pò suān nàsodium dimercaptosuccinate
硫酸铁liú suān tiěferrous sulfate
36
Total compounds
69
As first character
6
As last character
25
As middle character

硫 appears in 36 compound words: 69 as the first character, 6 as the last, and 25 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

二氧化硫èryǎnghuàliúHSK 6+

sulfur dioxide

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解硫字的来源，有助于理解中国文化。

le jiě liú zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ jiě zhōng guó wén huà .

Understanding the origin of the character for "sulfur" can help in understanding Chinese culture.

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Mar 2026

AI晶片命悬一线!钨、氦气、硫磺价格疯涨 涨幅全面超越原油

A I jīng piàn mìng xuán yī xiàn ! 钨 , 氦 qì , liú 磺 jià gé fēng zhǎng zhǎng fú quán miàn chāo yuè yuán yóu

上海有色网Mar 2026

...025年生产磷矿成品矿1173.75万吨硫磺采购量203.72万吨,现有磷矿储量近...

. . . 0 2 5 nián shēng chǎn 磷 kuàng chéng pǐn kuàng 1 1 7 3 . 7 5 wàn dūn liú 磺 cǎi gòu liàng 2 0 3 . 7 2 wàn dūn , xiàn yǒu 磷 kuàng chǔ liàng jìn . . .

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 硫 (liú) mean in Chinese?
硫 (liú) primarily means "sulfur (chemistry)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2730 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 硫 have?
硫 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 硫?
The radical associated with 硫 is 石 (stone). This radical appears in many characters related to stone.
What are common words containing 硫?
Common words with 硫 include: 硫磺 (liú huáng, "variant of 硫黃|硫黄[liu2 huang2]"); 硫酸 (liú suān, "sulfuric acid H2SO4"); 硫化氢 (liú huà qīng, "hydrogen sulfide H2S"); 硫酸盐 (liú suān yán, "sulfate"); 二氧化硫 (èr yǎng huà liú, "sulfur dioxide SO2"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
Is 硫 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 硫 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 硫 with real-time feedback

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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.