(qiú): ball used for playing games (variant of 球[qiu2]), ball, sphere

(qiú) is a Chinese character meaning “ball used for playing games (variant of 球[qiu2]).” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #628 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, jade. Its radical form (jade) appears in many related characters such as (wán, to play), (xiàn, to appear), (bān, team).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ball used for playing games (variant of 球[qiu2])
  2. ball
  3. sphere

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticjade

Decomposition: ⿰王求 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
noundì qiúthe earth4
nounbàng qiúbaseball6
nounquán qiúthe whole world4
nounlán qiúbasketball2
nounqiú duìsports team (basketball, soccer, football etc)4
nounzú qiúsoccer2
nounqiú chǎngstadium3
nounwǎng qiútennis3
nounyuè qiúthe moon6
nounqì qiúballoon5
nounqiú mífan (ball sports)4
nountái qiúbilliards6
nounpīng pāng qiútable tennis4
nounpái qiúvolleyball4
nounyǔ máo qiúbadminton3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dǎ qiúto play ball
jī qiúto bat
chuán qiú(sports) to pass the ball
huán qiúaround the world
bīng qiúice hockey
qiú sài(ball sports) game
hǎo qiú(ball sports) good shot!
jiē qiúto receive a served ball (volleyball, tennis etc)
fā qiú(tennis etc) to serve
qiú xiéathletic shoes
lěi qiúsoftball
qiú shǒu(ball sports) player
bǎn qiúcricket (ball game)
qiú méngoalmouth (in soccer)
qiú xīngsports star (ball sport)
100
Total compounds
35
As first character
65
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 35 as the first character, 65 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.

0.681609,182 co-occurrences
bàng
0.615181,812 co-occurrences
lán
0.59869,799 co-occurrences
pāng
0.59538,436 co-occurrences
pīng
0.58538,502 co-occurrences
0.539105,264 co-occurrences
duì
0.537335,269 co-occurrences
quán
0.533548,624 co-occurrences
0.48976,566 co-occurrences
0.481204,102 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

dēng lù yuè qiúHSK 5+

to land on the moon

phrase
jiéqiú gānlánHSK 7+

cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata)

noun
pútáo qiújūnHSK 6+

staphylococcus

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他有一个习惯,就是每天早上都会喝一杯温水。

Tā yǒu yī gè xíguàn, jiùshì měitiān zǎoshang dōu huì hē yī bēi wēnshuǐ.

He has a habit of drinking a glass of warm water every morning.

百度新闻Feb 2026

外媒:春节全影响力持续扩大

wài méi : chūn jié quán qiú yǐng xiǎng lì chí xù kuò dà

Foreign media: The global influence of the Spring Festival continues to expand

百度新闻Feb 2026

东西问丨全政要马年“集体说马” 背后藏着三重文化....

dōng xī wèn 丨 quán qiú zhèng yāo mǎ nián jí tī shuō mǎ bēi hòu zàng zhe sān chóng wén huā . . . .

Something to ask 丨 global dignitaries in the Year of the Horse "collective say horse" behind the hidden triple culture ....

百度新闻Feb 2026

青春志愿行 温暖糖会——青岛公交2路青年党团员助..

qīng chūn zhì yuàn háng wēn nuǎn táng qiú huì qīng dǎo gōng jiāo lù qīng nián dǎng tuán yuán zhù . .

Youth Volunteerism Warm Sugar Ball--Qingdao Bus No.2 Youth Party Members Hel...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...岛恒星科技学院:产教融合协同出海,绘就全化新图..

. . . dǎo héng xīng kē jì xué yuàn chǎn jiào róng gě xié tóng chū hǎi , huì jiù quán qiú huā xīn tú . .

Island Star Tech College: Integrating Industry and Education for Global Expansion, Charting a New Course for Globalization

百度新闻Feb 2026

南京江宁春节再传佳讯!全首款轻量化肝脏脂肪定量检..

nán jīng jiāng nìng chūn jié zài chuán jiā xùn ! quán qiú shǒu kuǎn qīng liáng huā gān zāng zhī fáng dìng liáng jiǎn . .

Nanjing Jiangning Delivers More Good News During Spring Festival! World's First Lightweight Liver Fat Quantification Device...

Tatoeba

你可以想象在月上行走吗?

Nǐ kěyǐ xiǎngxiàng zài yuèqiú shàng xíngzǒu ma?

Can you imagine walking on the moon?

Tatoeba

你昨天早上在打网吗?

Nǐ zuótiān zǎoshang zài dǎ wǎngqiú ma?

Were you playing tennis yesterday morning?

Tatoeba

你喜欢棒到什么程度?

Nǐ xǐhuan bàngqiú dào shénme chéngdù?

To what degree are you interested in baseball?

Tatoeba

我能预定一下打高尔夫吗?

Wǒ néng yùdìng yīxià dǎgāo'ěrfūqiú ma?

Can I make a reservation for golf?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiú

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 球 (qiú) mean in Chinese?
球 (qiú) primarily means "ball used for playing games (variant of 球[qiu2])." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #628 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 球 and 救?
球 (qiú) and 救 (jiù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 王 vs 攵 (same 求 component).
How many strokes does 球 have?
球 is written with 11 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 球?
The radical associated with 球 is 王 (jade). This radical appears in many characters related to jade.
What are the components of 球?
球 is composed of: 王 (semantic), 求 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰王求 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 球?
Common words with 球 include: 地球 (dì qiú, "the earth"); 棒球 (bàng qiú, "baseball"); 全球 (quán qiú, "the whole world"); 篮球 (lán qiú, "basketball"); 球队 (qiú duì, "sports team (basketball, soccer, football etc)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 球 (qiú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiú: 仇 (hatred), 丘 (mound), 秋 (autumn), 囚 (prisoner), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 球 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 球 and the traditional form is 毬.

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.