属 (shǔ): category, genus (taxonomy), family members

属 (shǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “category.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 尸 (semantic) and 禹 (phonetic). It ranks #610 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 属 body. Its radical form 尸 (corpse) appears in many related characters such as 层 (céng, to pile on top of one another), 尽 (jǐn, to the greatest extent), 屋 (wū, (bound form) house).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. category
  2. genus (taxonomy)
  3. family members

Etymology & Origin

属

pictophoneticbody

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

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 属

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
属于verbshǔ yúto belong to5
金属nounjīn shǔmetal6
家属nounjiā shǔfamily member6
亲属nounqīn shǔkin6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
纯属verbchún shǔto be purely
下属nounxià shǔsubordinate
属实verbshǔ shíto turn out to be true
重金属nounzhòng jīn shǔheavy metal
归属verbguī shǔto belong to
隶属verblì shǔto be subordinate to
所属adjectivesuǒ shǔone's affiliation (i.e. the organization one is affiliated with)
附属verbfù shǔsubsidiary
专属adjectivezhuān shǔto belong or be dedicated exclusively to
属下nounshǔ xiàsubordinate
归属感nounguī shǔ gǎnsense of belonging
直系亲属zhí xì qīn shǔnext of kin
附属品nounfù shǔ pǐnaccessory
属性nounshǔ xìngattribute
眷属nounjuàn shǔfamily member
100
Total compounds
16
As first character
72
As last character
12
As middle character

属 appears in 100 compound words: 16 as the first character, 72 as the last, and 12 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 属 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

隶lì
0.70751,474 co-occurrences
于yú
0.597214,212 co-occurrences
所suǒ
0.528118,036 co-occurrences
归guī
0.51819,328 co-occurrences
附fù
0.50030,476 co-occurrences
个gè
0.47067,930 co-occurrences
鳄è
0.438862 co-occurrences
亲qīn
0.43512,636 co-occurrences
菌jūn
0.4335,662 co-occurrences
为wéi
0.42381,460 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

过渡金属guòdù jīnshǔHSK 6+

transition metal; transition element

noun
黑色金属hēisè jīnshǔHSK 5+

iron, chromium, manganese and their alloys

noun
金属疲劳jīn shǔ pí láoHSK 6+

metal fatigue

phrase
直系亲属zhí xì qīn shǔHSK 5+

next of kin; immediate dependant

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好属字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo shǔ zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "属" correctly, one must master the proper stroke order.

99 健康网Feb 2026

麦芽糖醇属于无糖食品吗?它算不算国标定义的“糖”

mài yá táng chún shǔ yú wú táng shí pǐn ma ? tā suàn bù suàn guó biāo dìng yì de táng

Is maltitol a sugar-free food? Is it considered "sugar" as defined by the national standard

99 健康网Feb 2026

麦芽糖属于无糖食品吗?升糖指数高能标注无糖吗

mài yá táng shǔ yú wú táng shí pǐn ma ? shēng táng zhǐ shǔ gāo néng biāo zhù wú táng ma

Is maltose a sugar-free food? Can a high glycemic index be marked as sugar-free?

中時新聞網Feb 2026

...”成最后身影!新北12岁女童坠楼相验 家属痛哭

. . . chéng zuì hòu shēn yǐng ! xīn běi 1 2 suì nǚ tóng zhuì lóu xiāng yàn jiā shǔ tòng kū

"The last figure! A 12-year-old girl in New Taipei City fell from a building and her family cried bitterly

LtnFeb 2026

8岁男童命丧花莲鲤鱼潭!家属控快艇“船尾浪”酿祸 交通部回应了

8 suì nán tóng mìng sāng huā lián lǐ yú tán ! jiā shǔ kòng kuài tǐng chuán wěi làng niàng huò jiāo tōng bù huí yīng le

An 8-year-old boy died in Hualien Liyu Pond! The family controlled the speedboat's "stern waves" to cause trouble, and the Ministry of Communications responded

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

财政部:网传500令吉斋戒月援助属假消息

cái zhèng bù : wǎng chuán 5 0 0 lìng jí 斋 jiè yuè yuán zhù shǔ jiǎ xiāo xī

Ministry of Finance: The RM500 Ramadan aid spread online is fake news

Tatoeba

您隶属哪家俱乐部吗?

Nín lìshǔ nǎ jiājù lè bù ma?

Do you belong to any clubs?

Tatoeba

他们属于哪一个佛教宗派?

Tāmen shǔyú nǎyīge Fójiào zōngpài?

Which Buddhist school of thought do they belong to?

Tatoeba

你确定你的资料属实吗?

Nǐ quèdìng nǐ de zīliào shǔshí ma?

Are you sure of your facts?

Tatoeba

这把枪是属于谁的?

Zhè bǎ qiāng shì shǔyú shéi de?

Who does the gun belong to?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 尸 (body) component

尸 Radical Family — Characters sharing the corpse radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced shǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 属 (shǔ) mean in Chinese?
属 (shǔ) primarily means "category." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #610 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 属 have?
属 is written with 12 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 属?
The radical associated with 属 is 尸 (corpse). This radical appears in many characters related to corpse.
What are the components of 属?
属 is composed of: 尸 (semantic), 禹 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸尸禹 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 属?
Common words with 属 include: 属于 (shǔ yú, "to belong to"); 金属 (jīn shǔ, "metal"); 家属 (jiā shǔ, "family member"); 纯属 (chún shǔ, "to be purely"); 下属 (xià shǔ, "subordinate"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 属 (shǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shǔ: 数 (to count), 书 (book), 术 (method), 树 (tree), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 属 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 属 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 属 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.