(): woman

() is a Chinese character meaning “woman.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (woman). It ranks #224 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, a woman turned to the side. Its radical form (woman) appears in many related characters such as (nǎi, grandmother, milk), (, she), (hǎo, good).

Native pronunciation
HSK 1Radical: woman3 strokesFrequency #224

Definitions

  1. woman

Etymology & Origin

pictographicA woman turned to the side

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounnǚ rénwoman3
nounnǚ shìlady1
nounnǚ érdaughter1
nounnǚ péng yougirlfriend1
nounnǚ xìngwoman4
nounnǚ shēngschoolgirl3
nounnǚ hái rerhua form of 女孩[nu : 3 hai2]2
nounnǚ zǐwoman5
nounfù nǚwoman5
nounsūn nǚson's daughter4
nounzǐ nǚchildren5
nounmǔ nǚmother and daughter4
nounfù nǚfather and daughter4
nounér nǚchildren5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
nǚ háigirl
měi nǚbeautiful woman
jì nǚprostitute
nǚ wángqueen
nǚ yǒugirlfriend
nǚ lángyoung woman
nǚ shéngoddess
shào nǚgirl
nǚ wūwitch
chǔ nǚvirgin
nán nǚmale-female
nǚ púfemale servant
nǚ yōng(female) maid
nǚ huángempress
nǚ bànfemale companion
100
Total compounds
59
As first character
41
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 59 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 0 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.

0.6131,308,060 co-occurrences
xìng
0.588782,682 co-occurrences
hái
0.571192,224 co-occurrences
婿
0.56539,322 co-occurrences
0.56488,807 co-occurrences
ér
0.553176,106 co-occurrences
shǎo
0.523333,996 co-occurrences
0.50442,324 co-occurrences
jiǎo
0.503310,440 co-occurrences
0.486262,644 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (28)

fù nǚ yùn dòngHSK 5+

women's movement; feminism

phrase
gūnánguǎnǚHSK 7+

a man and a woman are alone in the same place

phrase
绿hóngnánlǜnǚHSK 2+

young men and women in colorful clothes

phrase
huánghuā guīnüHSK 7+

maiden; (untouched) female virgin

noun
jīntóngyùnǚHSK 5+

child attendants of the immortals; innocent and lovely young children

phrase
jiǔ tiān xuán nǚHSK 7+

Xuan Nü, a fairy in Chinese mythology

phrase
láng cái nǚ màoHSK 5+

talented man and beautiful woman; ideal couple

phrase
liáng jiā nǚ zǐHSK 5+

woman from a respectable family; respectable woman

phrase
绿lǜ nǚ hóng nánHSK 2+

young people decked out in gorgeous clothes (idiom)

phrase
nán bàn nǚ zhuāngHSK 5+

to crossdress as a female

verb
nánhuānnǚ'àiHSK 1+

passionate love between a man and a woman

phrase
nán hūn nǚ jiàHSK 6+

to celebrate a wedding

phrase

Showing 12 of 28 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

公司提倡男平等,性员工享有同样的晋升机会。

Gōngsī tíchàng nánnǚ píngděng, nǚxìng yuángōng xiǎngyǒu tóngyàng de jìnshēng jīhuì.

The company advocates gender equality; female employees have the same promotion opportunities.

百度新闻Feb 2026

小伙出售前友送的银手镯,剪开发现内芯为30克高纯....

xiǎo huǒ chū shòu qián nǚ yǒu sòng de yín shǒu 镯 , jiǎn kāi fā xiàn nèi xīn wéi kè gāo chún . . . .

The guy sold his ex-girlfriend to send the silver bracelet, cut open and found that the core for 30 grams of high-purity ....

百度新闻Feb 2026

“我儿就是战神!”

wǒ nǚ ér jiù shì zhàn shén !

"My daughter is the God of War!"

百度新闻Feb 2026

和首都铁骑,做一天朋友

hé shǒu dū nǚ tiě qí , zuò yī tiān péng yǒu

I'll be friends for a day with the Capital Rangers.

百度新闻Feb 2026

逛游乐场与家人失散,5岁童坠入路边深井大哭,男子..

guàng yóu lè chǎng yú jiā rén shī sàn , suì nǚ tóng zhuì rù lù biān shēn jǐng dà kū , nán zǐ . .

A 5-year-old girl became separated from her family while visiting an amusement park and fell into a deep roadside well, where she began crying. A man...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨9年前带3岁儿开出租车的单亲妈妈,除..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 nián qián dài suì nǚ ér kāi chū zū chē de shàn qīn mā mā , chú . .

Spring Festival Grassroots Report | Single Mom Who Drove a Taxi with Her 3-Year-Old Daughter 9 Years Ago...

Tatoeba

喜欢男人,为什么还要和人结婚?

Xǐhuan nánrén, wèishénme hái yào hé nǚrén jiéhūn?

Why would you marry a woman if you like men?

Tatoeba

你是怎么认识那个好孩的?

Nǐ shì zěnme rènshi nàge hǎo nǚhái de?

How did you come to know such a wonderful girl?

Tatoeba

请问,这位士是什么人?

Qǐngwèn, zhèwèi nǚshì shì shénmerén?

Excuse me, who is this woman?

Tatoeba

如何引起人的渴望?

Rúhé yǐnqǐ nǚrén de kěwàng?

How to arouse a woman's desire?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the woman radical

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 女 (nǚ) mean in Chinese?
女 (nǚ) primarily means "woman." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #224 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 女 have?
女 is written with 3 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 女?
The radical associated with 女 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are common words containing 女?
Common words with 女 include: 女人 (nǚ rén, "woman"); 女孩 (nǚ hái, "girl"); 女士 (nǚ shì, "lady"); 女儿 (nǚ ér, "daughter"); 女朋友 (nǚ péng you, "girlfriend"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 女 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 女 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.