鳅 (qiū): loach (family Cobitidae), used in 鯕鰍|鲯鳅 (mahi-mahi, a fish unrelated to the loaches)

鳅 (qiū) is a Chinese character meaning “loach (family cobitidae).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 鱼 (semantic) and 秋 (phonetic). It ranks #4612 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 鳅 fish. Its radical form 鱼 (fish) appears in many related characters such as 鱼 (yú, fish), 鲜 (xiān, fresh), 鲨 (shā, shark).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 鱼 fish17 strokesFrequency #4612鱼 semantic秋 phonetic

Definitions

  1. loach (family Cobitidae)
  2. used in 鯕鰍|鲯鳅 (mahi-mahi, a fish unrelated to the loaches)

Etymology & Origin

鳅

pictophoneticfish

Decomposition: ⿰鱼秋 (layout: left-right)

Components:鱼semantic秋phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
泥鳅nounní qiuloach
鱼鳅yú qiu(dialect) see 泥鰍|泥鳅
鲯鳅qí qiūmahi-mahi
3
Total compounds
0
As first character
100
As last character
0
As middle character

鳅 appears in 3 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

芒种时节煲一锅泥鳅炖豆腐——小鲜藏至味 苦夏始清补

máng zhǒng shí jié bāo yī guō ní qiū dùn dòu fǔ — — xiǎo xiān zàng zhì wèi kǔ xià shǐ qīng bǔ

During the Grain in Ear solar term, simmer a pot of loach and tofu stew—a simple dish that hides the finest flavors, offering a light and nourishing remedy for the summer heat.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 鱼 (fish) component

鲜xiān鳞lín鲨shā鳄è鲸jīng鲤lǐ

鱼 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fish radical

鱼yú鲁lǔ

Related Characters

鱼yú鲜xiān鲨shā鲁lǔ鳄è鲤lǐ鲸jīng鳞lín

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鳅 (qiū) mean in Chinese?
鳅 (qiū) primarily means "loach (family cobitidae)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4612 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 鳅 and 愁?
鳅 (qiū) and 愁 (chóu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 鱼 vs 忄 (same 秋 component).
How many strokes does 鳅 have?
鳅 is written with 17 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 鳅?
The radical associated with 鳅 is 鱼 (fish). This radical appears in many characters related to fish.
What are the components of 鳅?
鳅 is composed of: 鱼 (semantic), 秋 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰鱼秋 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鳅?
Common words with 鳅 include: 泥鳅 (ní qiu, "loach"); 鱼鳅 (yú qiu, "(dialect) see 泥鰍|泥鳅"); 鲯鳅 (qí qiū, "mahi-mahi"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
Is 鳅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 鳅 and the traditional form is 鰍.

Practice writing 鳅 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.