(): area, region, district, small, distinguish, CL:個|个[ge4]

() is a Chinese character meaning “area.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #265 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a place 匸 under a lord's control 乂. Its radical form (hiding) appears in many related characters such as (, (bound form) matching), (, to hide).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. area
  2. region
  3. district
  4. small
  5. distinguish
  6. Classifier: 個|个[ge4]

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA place 匸 under a lord's control 乂

Decomposition: ⿷匸乂 (layout: surround-from-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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 qūregion5
verb/nounqū biédifference4
nounqū yùarea5
nounshè qūcommunity5
nounshì qūurban district4
nounjiāo qūsuburban district4
verbqū fēnto differentiate6
nounxiǎo qūhousing estate3
nounshān qūmountain area5
nounchéng qūcity district5
nounzāi qūdisaster area6
nounjǐng qūscenic area4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiē qūblock
tè qūspecial administrative region
jiào qūdiocese
xiá qūadministrative region
jìn qūrestricted area
xuǎn qūelectoral district
shí qūtime zone
qū qūinsignificant
léi qūminefield (lit. and fig.)
bǎo hù qūconservation district
zhàn qūwar zone
fēn qūallocated area (for housing, industry etc)
lín qūregion of forest
yuán qūsite developed for a group of related enterprises
kuàng qūmining site
100
Total compounds
15
As first character
85
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 15 as the first character, 85 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.

huá
0.588296,184 co-occurrences
0.585390,694 co-occurrences
0.5831,368,822 co-occurrences
zhèn
0.543285,456 co-occurrences
xiá
0.521114,582 co-occurrences
chéng
0.514395,934 co-occurrences
shè
0.507344,082 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.49849,212 co-occurrences
shì
0.490488,112 co-occurrences
kuò
0.482212,652 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

gōngyè yuánqūHSK 3+

industrial park

noun
jīngjì tèqūHSK 4+

special economic zone

noun
qūyù wǎnglùHSK 5+

local area network; LAN

noun
shǒushànzhīqūHSK 5+

the best of places; capital; capital city (of a country)

phrase
yóudì qūhàoHSK 4+

postal code; zip code

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个商业很繁华,有很多大型购物中心。

Zhè gè shāngyè qū hěn fánhuá, yǒu hěn duō dàxíng gòuwù zhōngxīn.

This commercial district is very prosperous, with many large shopping centers.

百度新闻Feb 2026

大年初一全社会跨域人员流动量超2.1亿人次 全国..

dà nián chū yī quán shè huì kuà ōu yù rén yuán liú dòng liáng chāo . yì rén cì quán guó . .

The first day of the Lunar New Year saw more than 210 million inter-regional movements of people across the country...

百度新闻Feb 2026

寒风中的暖流丨贵安新市场监督管理局为外卖骑手送去..

hán fēng zhōng de nuǎn liú 丨 guì ān xīn ōu shì chǎng jiān dū guǎn lǐ jú wéi wài mài qí shǒu sòng qù . .

Warm Current in the Cold Wind丨Gui'an New District Market Supervision Administration sends takeaway riders...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走军营丨北部战陆军某边防旅巡逻艇中队守望北疆..

xīn chūn zǒu jūn yíng 丨 běi bù zhàn ōu lù jūn mǒu biān fáng lǚ xún luó tǐng zhōng duì shǒu wàng běi jiāng . .

The new spring walk military camp丨Army in the northern theater of war a border guard brigade patrol boat squadron watch over the northern border ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春运进行时|为二次元乘客开辟临时卸妆 桂林公园站..

chūn yùn jìn háng shí wéi èr cì yuán chéng kè kāi bì lín shí xiè zhuāng ōu guì lín gōng yuán zhàn . .

Spring Festival in Progress|Temporary Makeup Removal Area Opened for Secondary Passengers Guilin Park Station...

百度新闻Feb 2026

大湾航空飞往台北航班遇大雾盘旋后折返,航司回...

dà wān ōu háng kōng fēi wǎng tái běi háng bān yù dà wù pán xuán hòu shé fǎn , háng sī huí . . .

A Greater Bay Area Airlines flight to Taipei encountered heavy fog, circled, and then returned to base. The airline responded...

Tatoeba

钢琴和鱼有什么别?

Gāngqín hé yú yǒu shénme qūbié?

What is the difference between a piano and a fish?

Tatoeba

鹰鸮和仓鸮有什么别?

Yīngxiāo hé cāngxiāo yǒu shénme qūbié?

What's the difference between an eagle-owl and a barn owl?

Tatoeba

馒头和馍馍有别吗?

Mántou hé mómo yǒu qūbié ma?

Is there a difference between steamed buns and steamed bread?

Tatoeba

整个小对这个消息很惊讶。

Zhěnggè xiǎoqū duì zhège xiāoxi hěn jīngyà.

The whole neighborhood was surprised at the news.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the hiding radical

Related Characters

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 区 (qū) mean in Chinese?
区 (qū) primarily means "area." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #265 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 区 and 大?
区 (qū) and 大 (dà) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 区 (small) vs 大 (big).
How many strokes does 区 have?
区 is written with 4 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 区?
The radical associated with 区 is 匸 (hiding). This radical appears in many characters related to hiding.
What are the components of 区?
区 is composed of: 匸 (structural), 乂 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿷匸乂 with a surround-from-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 区?
Common words with 区 include: 地区 (dì qū, "region"); 区别 (qū bié, "difference"); 区域 (qū yù, "area"); 社区 (shè qū, "community"); 街区 (jiē qū, "block"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 区 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 区 and the traditional form is 區.

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.