人 (rén): person

人 (rén) is a Chinese character meaning “person.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 亻 (person). It ranks #7 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 人 the legs of a human being. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now), 介 (jiè, to introduce).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 1Radical: 亻 person2 strokesFrequency #7

Definitions

  1. person

Etymology & Origin

人

pictographicThe legs of a human being

Stroke Order

1
2

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 人

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
女人nounnǚ rénwoman3
别人pronounbié renother people3
男人nounnán réna man3
夫人nounfū renlady6
人类nounrén lèihumanity5
个人noungè rénan individual5
病人nounbìng rénsick person3
家人nounjiā rénfamily member1
人生nounrén shēnglife (one's time on earth)4
大人noundà renadult3
人员nounrén yuánstaff4
私人nounsī rénprivate5
敌人noundí rénenemy5
人物nounrén wùperson5
客人nounkè rénvisitor3
人民nounrén mínthe people5
主人nounzhǔ rénowner5
机器人nounjī qì rénrobot5
迷人adjectivemí rénfascinating6
名人nounmíng rénpersonage3
人家pronounrén jiāhousehold6
他人pronountā rénanother person5
本人pronounběn rénI5
老人nounlǎo rénold man or woman3
人群nounrén qúncrowd5
工人noungōng rénworker4
惊人adjectivejīng rénastonishing6
人士nounrén shìperson6
人口nounrén kǒupopulation5
亲人nounqīn rénone's close relatives5
爱人nounài renspouse (PRC)3
成人verb/nounchéng rénto reach adulthood5
人体nounrén tǐhuman body5
军人nounjūn rénserviceman6
人数nounrén shùnumber of people4
人才nounrén cáitalent5
负责人nounfù zé rénperson in charge4
商人nounshāng rénmerchant5
新人nounxīn rénnewcomer5
诗人nounshī rénbard5
感人adjectivegǎn réntouching4
众人nounzhòng réneveryone6
熟人nounshú rénacquaintance5
艺人nounyì rénentertainer6
人工adjective/nounrén gōngartificial5
动人adjectivedòng réntouching5
人力nounrén lìmanpower5
人行道nounrén xíng dàosidewalk6
盲人nounmáng rénblind person6
未成年人nounwèi chéng nián rénminor (i.e. person under 18)6
古人noungǔ rénpeople of ancient times6
人事nounrén shìpersonnel6
路人nounlù rénpasser-by5
人为adjectiverén wéiartificial6
人工智能nounrén gōng zhì néngartificial intelligence (AI)6
行人nounxíng rénpedestrian5
后人nounhòu rénlater generation6
人际adjectiverén jìhuman relationships5
用人verbyòng rénservant6
人山人海phraserén shān rén hǎi(idiom) multitude6
人均verbrén jūnper capita6
游人nounyóu réna tourist6
人民币nounrén mín bìRenminbi, the official currency of the PRC (currency codes: RMB or CNY)5
267
Total compounds
23
As first character
66
As last character
11
As middle character

人 appears in 267 compound words: 23 as the first character, 66 as the last, and 11 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 人 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

口kǒu
0.655978,876 co-occurrences
民mín
0.530633,914 co-occurrences
物wù
0.493449,372 co-occurrences
数shǔ
0.482245,192 co-occurrences
密mì
0.460149,064 co-occurrences
华huá
0.453131,848 co-occurrences
私sī
0.45173,262 co-occurrences
共gòng
0.449273,616 co-occurrences
候hòu
0.447107,748 co-occurrences
亡wáng
0.439101,742 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (259)

爱人如己àirénrújǐHSK 3+

to love others as oneself

phrase
傍人门户bàngrénménhùHSK 5+

to depend on others; to be unable to live independently

phrase
北京猿人Běijīng yuánrén

Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis)

noun
被保险人bèibǎoxiǎnrénHSK 4+

insured

noun
逼人太甚bī rén tài shènHSK 6+

to push sb too far; to go too far (in oppressing people)

phrase
不甘后人bùgānhòurénHSK 7+

to not be content to lag behind; to hate being outdone; to be not content to fall behind or not exceed

phrase
不近人情bùjìn-rénqíngHSK 2+

not amenable to reason; inconsiderate of human feelings; unkind; insensitive

phrase
不可告人bùkěgàorénHSK 2+

hidden; not to be divulged

phrase
不省人事bùxǐngrénshìHSK 4+

to lose consciousness; to be unconscious

phrase
不为人知bùwéirénzhīHSK 2+

not known by people; unknown

phrase
步人后尘bùrénhòuchénHSK 6+

to follow in somebody's footsteps

phrase
才识过人cáishíguòrénHSK 3+

to be gifted with talent and insight far beyond the average person

phrase

Showing 12 of 259 idioms containing 人.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

人力资源部门正在招聘新员工,计划下个月面试五十人。

Rénlì zīyuán bùmén zhèngzài zhāopìn xīn yuángōng, jìhuà xià gè yuè miànshì wǔshí rén.

The HR department is recruiting new employees and plans to interview fifty people next month.

百度新闻Feb 2026

大年初一,浙大发顶刊论文:用人工智能为膜蛋白造“装..

dà nián chū yī , zhè dà fā dǐng kān lún wén yòng rén gōng zhì néng wéi mó dàn bái zào zhuāng . .

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, ZJU published a top paper on the use of artificial intelligence for membrane proteins...

百度新闻Feb 2026

机器人春晚PK赛:热闹之余,多想三个问题 | ...

jī qì rén chūn wǎn sài rè nào zhī yú , duō xiǎng sān gě wèn tí . . .

Robot Spring Festival PK Match: Three More Questions to Think About While ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

一杯热水赠归人 一句感谢显温情 环兰高速人:点滴之..

yī bēi rè shuǐ zèng guī rén yī gōu gǎn xiè xiǎn wēn qíng huán lán gāo sù rén diǎn dī zhī . .

A cup of hot water for the returnees A word of thanks for the warmth of the Huanlan Expressway people: a little bit of...

百度新闻Feb 2026

湖北文旅集团AI守岁人护新春 科技赋能年味浓

hú běi wén lǚ jí tuán shǒu suì rén hù xīn chūn kē jì fù néng nián wèi nóng

Hubei Culture and Tourism Group AI year-keeper to protect the New Year Technology empowers the flavor of the year

百度新闻Feb 2026

在春晚与沈腾马丽同框的机器人 在全国100多个地方..

zài chūn wǎn yú 沈 téng mǎ lí tóng kuàng de jī qì rén zài quán guó duō gě dì fāng . .

The robot that shared the frame with Shen Teng and Ma Li at the Spring Festival Gala In more than 100 places across the country...

Tatoeba

我回来了!啊?有人来看我们吗?

Wǒ huílai le! ǎ? Yǒu rén lái kàn wǒmen ma?

I'm back! Oh? Have we got a guest?

Tatoeba

你是美国人还是法国人?

Nǐ shì Měiguórén háishi Fǎguórén?

Are you American or French?

Tatoeba

这些人是做什么事的?

Zhèxiē rén shì zuò shénmeshì de?

What are these people doing?

Tatoeba

我不在的时候有没有人来?

Wǒ bù zài de shíhou yǒuméiyǒu rén lái?

Did anyone come in my absence?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced rén

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 人 (rén) mean in Chinese?
人 (rén) primarily means "person." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #7 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 人 have?
人 is written with 2 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 人?
The radical associated with 人 is 亻 (person). In fact, 人 is itself the full form of this radical — the simplified radical form 亻 appears as a component in many related characters.
What are common words containing 人?
Common words with 人 include: 女人 (nǚ rén, "woman"); 别人 (bié ren, "other people"); 男人 (nán rén, "a man"); 有人 (yǒu rén, "someone"); 人们 (rén men, "people"). There are over 267 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 人 (rén)?
Several characters share the pronunciation rén: 任 (task, to appoint), 认 (to recognize, to admit), 忍 (to bear), 仁 (humane), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 人 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 人 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 人 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.