呕 (ǒu): vomit

呕 (ǒu) is a Chinese character meaning “vomit.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 区 (phonetic). It ranks #2667 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 呕 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. vomit

Etymology & Origin

呕

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口区 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
呕吐verbǒu tùto vomit
作呕verbzuò ǒuto feel sick
呕心沥血phraseǒu xīn lì xuèlit. to spit out one's heart and spill blood (idiom)
干呕verbgān ǒuto retch
呕出物ǒu chū wùvomitus
呕气òu qìvariant of 慪氣|怄气
呕吐物nounǒu tù wùvomit
嗳气呕逆ǎi qì ǒu nìbelching and retching counterflow (medical term)
8
Total compounds
63
As first character
25
As last character
13
As middle character

呕 appears in 8 compound words: 63 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 13 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 呕 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

吐tǔ
0.7281,827 co-occurrences
泻xiè
0.56764 co-occurrences
恶è
0.559428 co-occurrences
腹fù
0.494274 co-occurrences
惧jù
0.48066 co-occurrences
晕yūn
0.46022 co-occurrences
胃wèi
0.44852 co-occurrences
血xiě
0.438282 co-occurrences
咳ké
0.42616 co-occurrences
嗽sòu
0.42310 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

呕心沥血ǒuxīnlìxuè

determination and hard work; put your blood, sweat and tears into it

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他身体不适,频频呕吐。

Tā shēntǐ búshì, pínpín ǒu tù.

He feels unwell and vomits frequently.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

典型的临床表现是恶心、呕吐、腹泻、腹痛,有些人会出现头晕、昏迷等。

diǎn xíng de lín chuáng biǎo xiàn shì è xīn , ǒu tǔ , fù xiè , fù tòng , yǒu xiē rén huì chū xiàn tóu yūn , hūn mí děng .

Typical clinical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain; some people may also experience dizziness, loss of consciousness, and other symptoms.

SmzdmMar 2026

...需要间隔三到四个小时,拉稀软便可以补充,呕吐就没必要吃了#养猫经验分享 #宠物益....

. . . xū yāo jiān gé sān dào sì gè xiǎo shí , lā xī ruǎn biàn kě yǐ bǔ chōng , ǒu tǔ jiù méi bì yāo chī le yǎng māo jīng yàn fēn xiǎng chǒng wù yì . . . .

...Wait three to four hours; if your cat has loose or watery stools, you can give them some food, but if they’re vomiting, there’s no need to feed them. #CatCareTips #PetHealth....

Am730Mar 2026

...爆发诺如病毒感染 船上76人两周内陆续屙呕

. . . bào fā nuò rú bìng dú gǎn rǎn chuán shàng 7 6 rén liǎng zhōu nèi lù xù 屙 ǒu

... Norovirus infection broke out, and 76 people on board vomited within two weeks

BastillepostMar 2026

...威士特丹号”疑爆诺如病毒 上月中起76人呕吐腹泻

. . . wēi shì tè dān hào yí bào nuò rú bìng dú shàng yuè zhōng qǐ 7 6 rén ǒu tǔ fù xiè

... Western-Damascus "suspected norovirus explosion" 76 people vomited and had diarrhea since the middle of last month

99 健康网Feb 2026

避孕药什么时候吃有效?服药后呕吐是否需要补服一片

bì yùn yào shén má shí hòu chī yǒu xiào ? fú yào hòu ǒu tǔ shì fǒu xū yāo bǔ fú yī piàn

When are birth control pills effective? Do you need to take a refill tablet for vomiting after taking the medicine?

Tatoeba

你是否有恶心呕吐的感觉。

Nǐ shìfǒu yǒu ěxīn ǒutù de gǎnjué.

Do you feel nauseous?

Tatoeba

我只能描述这可怕的味道像呕吐混合着烂肉

Wǒ zhǐnéng miáoshù zhè kěpà de wèidao xiàng ǒutù hùnhé zhe làn ròu

I can only describe the terrible smell as vomit mixed with rotting flesh.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced ǒu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 呕 (ǒu) mean in Chinese?
呕 (ǒu) primarily means "vomit." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2667 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 呕 and 驱?
呕 (ǒu) and 驱 (qū) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 马 (same 区 component).
How many strokes does 呕 have?
呕 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 呕?
The radical associated with 呕 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 呕?
呕 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 区 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口区 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 呕?
Common words with 呕 include: 呕吐 (ǒu tù, "to vomit"); 作呕 (zuò ǒu, "to feel sick"); 呕心沥血 (ǒu xīn lì xuè, "lit. to spit out one's heart and spill blood (idiom)"); 干呕 (gān ǒu, "to retch"); 呕出物 (ǒu chū wù, "vomitus"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 呕 (ǒu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ǒu: 殴 (to beat up), 欧 (Europe (abbr. for 歐洲|欧洲)), 偶 (accidental). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 呕 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 呕 and the traditional form is 嘔.

Practice writing 呕 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.