(): (bound form) breast, (bound form) milk, (bound form) newborn, suckling

() is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) breast.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1814 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hidden. Its radical form (second) appears in many related characters such as (jiǔ, nine), (, also), (, (bound form) to practice).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) breast
  2. (bound form) milk
  3. (bound form) newborn
  4. suckling

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichidden

Decomposition: ⿰孚乚 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
rǔ fángbreast
rǔ tóunipple
rǔ làocheese
rǔ tánglactose
mǔ rǔbreast milk
rǔ zhàobra
rǔ yá(dentistry) deciduous tooth
bǔ rǔbreastfeeding
rǔ suānlactic acid
rǔ jiāolatex
rǔ zhīmilk
rǔ niúdairy cattle
rǔ pǐndairy product
rǔ xiāngfrankincense
niú rǔcow's milk
100
Total compounds
55
As first character
39
As last character
6
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 55 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 6 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.

0.83539,603 co-occurrences
lào
0.6144,712 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.6018,492 co-occurrences
ái
0.5679,780 co-occurrences
0.54718,912 co-occurrences
zhī
0.5293,576 co-occurrences
wéi
0.5061,098 co-occurrences
0.5042,502 co-occurrences
táng
0.4896,406 co-occurrences
fáng
0.47716,170 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

bǔrǔ dòngwùHSK 7+

mammal

noun
rǔxiùwèigānHSK 7+

still very young; wet behind the ears; callow

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

rǔ zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "乳" has different usages in different contexts.

99 健康网Feb 2026

孕期喝了酒对宝宝有没有影响?哺期喝酒也会伤害宝宝吗

yùn qī hē le jiǔ duì bǎo bǎo yǒu méi yǒu yǐng xiǎng ? bǔ rǔ qī hē jiǔ yě huì shāng hài bǎo bǎo ma

Does drinking alcohol during pregnancy affect the baby? Can drinking alcohol while breastfeeding also harm your baby?

99 健康网Feb 2026

腺增生怎么办能消除吗?“消除”不现实,“...

yǒu rǔ xiàn zēng shēng zěn má bàn néng xiāo chú ma ? xiāo chú bù xiàn shí , . . .

What should I do if there is breast hyperplasia, can it be eliminated?" Eliminate the "unrealistic,"...

99 健康网Feb 2026

真正的无糖食品推荐哪些?配料只有生牛的酸奶算吗

zhēn zhèng de wú táng shí pǐn tuī jiàn nǎ xiē ? pèi liào zhī yǒu shēng niú rǔ de suān nǎi suàn ma

What are the recommended foods for real sugar-free? Is yogurt with only raw milk counted?

99 健康网Feb 2026

腺增生要动手术吗?手术是最后选择,非首选...

rǔ xiàn zēng shēng yāo dòng shǒu shù ma ? shǒu shù shì zuì hòu xuǎn zé , fēi shǒu xuǎn . . .

Do breast hyperplasia require surgery? Surgery is the last option, not the first choice...

99 健康网Feb 2026

腺增生要紧吗,要怎么治疗?先做检查再决定...

rǔ xiàn zēng shēng yāo jǐn ma , yāo zěn má zhì liáo ? xiān zuò jiǎn chá zài jué dìng . . .

Is breast hyperplasia important, and how to treat it? Do an inspection before deciding...

Tatoeba

我想检查一下我是否患了癌。

Wǒ xiǎng jiǎnchá yīxià wǒ shìfǒu huàn le rǔ'ái.

I'd like to have a test for breast cancer.

Tatoeba

海豚是一种哺动物。

Hǎitún shì yīzhǒng bǔrǔdòngwù.

A dolphin is a kind of mammal.

Tatoeba

鲸是被公认为最大的哺动物。

Jīng shì bèi gōngrèn wèi zuì dà de bǔrǔdòngwù.

The whale is well known to be the largest mammal.

Tatoeba

这瓶酸奶不含糖。

Zhè píng suānnǎi bù hán rǔtáng.

This bottle of yogurt is lactose-free.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the second radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 乳 (rǔ) mean in Chinese?
乳 (rǔ) primarily means "(bound form) breast." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1814 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 乳 and 浮?
乳 (rǔ) and 浮 (fú) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 乙 vs 氵 (same 孚 component).
How many strokes does 乳 have?
乳 is written with 8 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 乳?
The radical associated with 乳 is 乙 (second). This radical appears in many characters related to second.
What are the components of 乳?
乳 is composed of: 孚 (phonetic), 乚 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰孚乚 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 乳?
Common words with 乳 include: 乳房 (rǔ fáng, "breast"); 乳头 (rǔ tóu, "nipple"); 乳酪 (rǔ lào, "cheese"); 乳糖 (rǔ táng, "lactose"); 母乳 (mǔ rǔ, "breast milk"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 乳 (rǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation rǔ: 如 (as, if), 儒 (scholar), 辱 (disgrace), 入 (to enter). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 乳 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 乳 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.