(shòu): thin

(shòu) is a Chinese character meaning “thin.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1824 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, sickness. Its radical form (illness) appears in many related characters such as (, medicine), (bìng, illness), (téng, ache).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. thin

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒叟 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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
shòu xiǎoslightly-built
shòu zithin person
gǔ shòu rú chái(idiom) as thin as a match
shòu ruòthin and weak
xiāo shòuto waste away
shòu gǔ lín xúnskinny
shòu chángslim
qīng shòumeager
shòu ròulean meat
jīng shòu(coll.) lean (figure, meat etc)
shòu xuēslim
shòu shēnto lose weight (intentionally)
gān shòuwizened
tiāo féi jiǎn shòu(idiom) to cherry-pick
shòu sǐ de luò tuo bǐ mǎ dàlit. even a scrawny camel is bigger than a horse (idiom)
30
Total compounds
47
As first character
43
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 30 compound words: 47 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 10 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.

ròu
0.5213,804 co-occurrences
xiāo
0.4961,386 co-occurrences
ruò
0.4912,592 co-occurrences
féi
0.4841,500 co-occurrences
zhū
0.463780 co-occurrences
cuì
0.45260 co-occurrences
pàng
0.448414 co-occurrences
qiáo
0.44348 co-occurrences
cái
0.4301,980 co-occurrences
shēn
0.4286,303 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

gāo'ǎipàngshòuHSK 3+

one's physique; stature

phrase
gǔshòurúcháiHSK 6+

as thin as a stick; emaciated; unhealthily skinny

phrase
miànhuángjīshòuHSK 5+

to have a sallow complexion and emaciated body; to look sick or malnourished

phrase
shòu gǔ léng léngHSK 7+

bony; skinny

phrase
tiāoféijiǎnshòuHSK 7+

to pick the best for oneself; to choose whatever is to one's advantage

phrase
gǔ shòu rú cháiHSK 6+

variant of 骨瘦如柴[gu3 shou4 ru2 chai2]

phrase
shòugǔlínxúnHSK 6+

extremely skinny; all skin and bones

phrase
shòu gǔ líng dīngHSK 6+

(idiom) emaciated; scrawny

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他最近了很多,可能是因为工作压力大。

Tā zuìjìn shòu le hěn duō, kěnéng shì yīnwèi gōngzuò yālì dà.

He has lost a lot of weight recently, probably due to work pressure.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

吃很少却不下来?营养师揭真相:恐害体重暴走

chī hěn shǎo què shòu bù xià lái ? yíng yǎng shī jiē zhēn xiāng : kǒng hài tǐ chóng bào zǒu

Eat very little but can't lose weight? Nutritionist reveals the truth: fear of weight loss

WorldjournalFeb 2026

针酿眼出血? 医揭62岁男左眼“全黑”...

dǎ shòu shòu zhēn niàng yǎn chū xiě ? yī jiē 6 2 suì nán zuǒ yǎn quán hēi . . .

Eye bleeding caused by slimming injections? The doctor revealed that the 62-year-old man's left eye was "completely black"...

经济观察网-首页Feb 2026

...价”策略失灵叠加“黑天鹅”事件,雀巢忙“身”自救

. . . jià cè lüè shī líng dié jiā hēi tiān é shì jiàn , qiāo cháo máng shòu shēn zì jiù

... The failure of the "price" strategy superimposed on the "black swan" incident, and Nestlé was busy "slimming" to save itself

百度新闻Feb 2026

记者观察:食品贴上警示标签 智利欲全民身?

jì zhě guàn chá shí pǐn tiē shǎng jǐng shì biāo qiān zhì lì yù quán mín shòu shēn ?

Reporter's observation: food labeled with a warning that Chile wants to slim down the whole population?

百度新闻Feb 2026

...|记者观察:食品贴上警示标签 智利欲全民身..

. . . jì zhě guàn chá shí pǐn tiē shǎng jǐng shì biāo qiān zhì lì yù quán mín shòu shēn . .

... |Journalist's Observation:Food labeled with warnings Chile wants to slim down all...

Tatoeba

你真的认为汤姆算

Nǐ zhēn de rènwéi Tāngmǔ suàn shòu?

Do you really think Tom is skinny?

Tatoeba

欣怡最近好多喔,是去健身房还是失恋啊?

Xīn yí zuì jìn shòu hǎoduō ō, shì qù jiànshēnfáng háishi shīliàn ā?

Hsin-yi got so much slimmer lately. Is it gym or heartbreak?

Tatoeba

得只剩皮包骨了。

Tā shòu de zhǐ shèng píbāo gǔ le.

She is all skin and bone.

Tatoeba

说苗条比说更有礼貌。

Shuō miáotiao bǐ shuō shòu gèng yǒulǐmào.

It's more polite to say thin than skinny.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shòu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瘦 (shòu) mean in Chinese?
瘦 (shòu) primarily means "thin." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1824 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 瘦 and 厚?
瘦 (shòu) and 厚 (hòu) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 瘦 (thin) vs 厚 (thick).
How many strokes does 瘦 have?
瘦 is written with 14 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 瘦?
The radical associated with 瘦 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 瘦?
瘦 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 叟 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒叟 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瘦?
Common words with 瘦 include: 瘦小 (shòu xiǎo, "slightly-built"); 瘦子 (shòu zi, "thin person"); 骨瘦如柴 (gǔ shòu rú chái, "(idiom) as thin as a match"); 瘦弱 (shòu ruò, "thin and weak"); 消瘦 (xiāo shòu, "to waste away"). There are over 30 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瘦 (shòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shòu: 收 (to receive), 手 (hand), 守 (to guard), 首 (head), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 瘦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瘦 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.