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

(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 (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #968 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌受 (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
nounjiào shòuprofessor4
verbchuán shòuto impart6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shòu quánto authorize
shòu yǔto award
rén gōng shòu jīngartificial insemination
shòu kèto teach
shòu yìto inspire
jiǎng shòuto lecture
shòu xūnto award an honor
shòu fěnto pollinate
hán shòuto teach by correspondence
kè zuò jiào shòuvisiting professor
shòu mìngto give orders
zhuī shòuto posthumously award
shòu jiǎngto award a prize
fù jiào shòuassociate professor (university post)
shòu rén yǐ bǐngto hand someone the swordhilt (idiom)
43
Total compounds
56
As first character
30
As last character
14
As middle character

appears in 43 compound words: 56 as the first character, 30 as the last, and 14 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.

jiào
0.695683,555 co-occurrences
0.684207,766 co-occurrences
quán
0.52977,634 co-occurrences
pìn
0.46213,338 co-occurrences
0.45913,416 co-occurrences
jiǎng
0.43113,782 co-occurrences
0.43050,544 co-occurrences
xué
0.420104,958 co-occurrences
shì
0.42083,334 co-occurrences
0.41810,674 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

kè zuò jiào shòuHSK 4+

visiting professor; guest professor

phrase
línwēishòumìngHSK 5+

to sacrifice one's life in a crisis

phrase
shòu rén yǐ bǐngHSK 7+

to relinquish one's power or authority to someone else

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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 - 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

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

他曾经被予金牌。

Tā céngjīng bèi shòuyǔ jīnpái.

He's been awarded a gold medal once.

Tatoeba

特蕾莎修女被予诺贝尔奖。

Tè lěi shā xiūnǚ bèi shòuyǔ Nuòbèi'ěr Jiǎng.

Mother Teresa was given the Nobel prize.

Tatoeba

之以鱼,不如之以渔。

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

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 接?
授 (shòu) and 接 (jiē) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 授 (give) vs 接 (receive).
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 (jiào shòu, "professor"); 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 43 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 授 (shòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shòu: 收 (to receive), 手 (hand), 守 (to guard), 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 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.