授 (shòu): (bound form) to confer, to give, (bound form) to teach, to instruct, (literary) to appoint

授 (shòu) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to confer.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 受 (phonetic). It ranks #968 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 授 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to confer
  2. to give
  3. (bound form) to teach
  4. to instruct
  5. (literary) to appoint

Etymology & Origin

授

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌受 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 授

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
教授nounjiāo shòuto teach (a subject)4
传授verbchuán shòuto impart6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
授权verbshòu quánto authorize
授予verbshòu yǔto award
人工授精nounrén gōng shòu jīngartificial insemination
授课verbshòu kèto teach
授意verbshòu yìto inspire
讲授verbjiǎng shòuto lecture
授勋verbshòu xūnto award an honor
授粉shòu fěnto pollinate
函授nounhán shòuto teach by correspondence
客座教授kè zuò jiào shòuvisiting professor
授命verbshòu mìngto give orders
追授verbzhuī shòuto posthumously award
授奖verbshòu jiǎngto award a prize
副教授nounfù jiào shòuassociate professor (university post)
授人以柄phraseshòu rén yǐ bǐngto hand someone the swordhilt (idiom)
44
Total compounds
52
As first character
30
As last character
18
As middle character

授 appears in 44 compound words: 52 as the first character, 30 as the last, and 18 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 授 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

教jiào
0.638227,940 co-occurrences
予yǔ
0.61769,270 co-occurrences
权quán
0.50625,927 co-occurrences
聘pìn
0.4554,446 co-occurrences
课kè
0.4524,472 co-occurrences
讲jiǎng
0.4254,594 co-occurrences
副fù
0.42416,848 co-occurrences
学xué
0.41434,986 co-occurrences
士shì
0.41427,778 co-occurrences
誉yù
0.4123,558 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

客座教授kè zuò jiào shòuHSK 4+

visiting professor; guest professor

phrase
临危授命línwēishòumìngHSK 5+

to sacrifice one's life in a crisis

phrase
授人以柄shòu rén yǐ bǐngHSK 7+

to relinquish one's power or authority to someone else; leave room for criticism

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing 授.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请授出你的证件,配合我们的工作。

qǐng shòu chū nǐ de zhèng jiàn , pèi gě wǒ men de gōng zuò .

Please present your identification and cooperate with our investigation.

StheadlineFeb 2026

张锦芳教授 - 过早认识避孕方法 等于鼓励性行为?...

zhāng jǐn fāng jiào shòu guò zǎo rèn shí bì yùn fāng fǎ děng yú gǔ lì xìng háng wéi ? . . .

Professor Cheung Kam-fong - Premature understanding of contraceptive methods equals encouraging sexual behaviour?...

中時新聞網Feb 2026

台湾人在大陆》台湾教授在大陆的“艺术乡建”

tái wān rén zài dà lù tái wān jiào shòu zài dà lù de yì shù xiāng jiàn

Taiwanese in the Mainland" Taiwanese professor's "art township construction" in the mainland

美通社Feb 2026

...hilpa Biologicals 达成授权协议,致力扩大拉丁美洲生物相似药的可及...

. . . h i l p a B i o l o g i c a l s dá chéng shòu quán xié yì , zhì lì kuò dà lā dīng měi zhōu shēng wù xiāng sì yào de kě jí . . .

... hilpa Biologicals has entered into a licensing agreement to expand access to biosimilars in Latin America...

Intimes NewsFeb 2026

包括大马人 即日起飞英必须要有电子旅行授权

bāo kuò dà mǎ rén jí rì qǐ fēi yīng bì xū yāo yǒu diàn zǐ lǚ háng shòu quán

Including Malaysians, from now on, flying to the UK must have an electronic travel authorization

Hk01.comFeb 2026

广东流行歌诞生前我们听甚么?中大教授翻查史料还原时代曲面貌

guǎng dōng liú háng gē dàn shēng qián wǒ men tīng shèn má ? zhōng dà jiào shòu fān chá shǐ liào hái yuán shí dài qū miàn mào

What did we listen to before the birth of Cantonese pop songs? CUHK professors check historical materials to restore the appearance of the times

Tatoeba

他曾经被授予金牌。

Tā céngjīng bèi shòuyǔ jīnpái.

He's been awarded a gold medal once.

Tatoeba

特蕾莎修女被授予诺贝尔奖。

Tè lěi shā xiūnǚ bèi shòuyǔ Nuòbèi'ěr Jiǎng.

Mother Teresa was given the Nobel prize.

Tatoeba

授之以鱼,不如授之以渔。

Shòu zhī yǐ yú, bù rú shòu zhī yǐ yú.

It's better to teach someone how to fish than to give someone a fish.

Tatoeba

凯教授已研究昆虫四十年。

Kǎi jiàoshòu yǐ yánjiū kūnchóng sìshí nián.

Professor Kai has been studying insects for forty years.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced shòu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 授 (shòu) mean in Chinese?
授 (shòu) primarily means "(bound form) to confer." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #968 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 授 and 学?
授 (shòu) and 学 (xué) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 授 (teach) vs 学 (learn).
How many strokes does 授 have?
授 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 授?
The radical associated with 授 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 授?
授 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 受 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌受 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 授?
Common words with 授 include: 教授 (jiāo shòu, "to teach (a subject)"); 授权 (shòu quán, "to authorize"); 授予 (shòu yǔ, "to award"); 传授 (chuán shòu, "to impart"); 人工授精 (rén gōng shòu jīng, "artificial insemination"). There are over 44 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 授 (shòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shòu: 手 (hand), 受 (to receive), 收 (to receive), 首 (head), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 授 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 授 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 授 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.