竖 (shù): to erect, vertical, vertical stroke (in Chinese characters)

竖 (shù) is a Chinese character meaning “to erect.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 刂 (structural), 又 (structural) and 立 (structural). It ranks #2419 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 竖 a person 又 standing 立 as straight as a knife 刂. Its radical form 立 (stand) appears in many related characters such as 站 (zhàn, station), 立 (lì, to stand), 童 (tóng, child).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to erect
  2. vertical
  3. vertical stroke (in Chinese characters)

Etymology & Origin

竖

ideographicA person 又 standing 立 as straight as a knife 刂

Decomposition: ⿱⿰刂又立 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
竖起verbshù qǐto erect (a tent etc)
竖琴nounshù qínharp
横竖adverbhéng shuanyway
竖立verbshù lìto erect
竖井nounshù jǐngvertical shaft (for mining, ventilation systems etc)
竖中指verbshù zhōng zhǐto give the middle finger
横说竖说héng shuō shù shuōto explain sth over and over again
横三竖四héng sān shù sìin disorder
横挑鼻子竖挑眼héng tiāo bí zi shù tiāo yǎnto pick on sth incessantly (idiom)
竖起大拇指shù qǐ dà mu zhǐto give a thumbs-up
竖起耳朵shù qǐ ěr duoto prick up one's ears
横七竖八phrasehéng qī shù bāin disorder
横竖劲儿héng shù jìn rfirmness of determination
竖提nounshù tístroke𠄌 in Chinese characters (e.g. 以)
竖直adjectiveshù zhívertical
25
Total compounds
64
As first character
8
As last character
28
As middle character

竖 appears in 25 compound words: 64 as the first character, 8 as the last, and 28 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 竖 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

锯jù
0.524168 co-occurrences
穴xué
0.485342 co-occurrences
横héng
0.484485 co-occurrences
琴qín
0.481810 co-occurrences
井jǐng
0.437682 co-occurrences
拇mǔ
0.43642 co-occurrences
豹bào
0.424142 co-occurrences
立lì
0.4132,284 co-occurrences
撇piē
0.41234 co-occurrences
钩gōu
0.40450 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

横眉竖眼héngméi shù yǎnHSK 6+

to have a dirty look on one's face; to give someone a dirty look

phrase
横七竖八héngqīshùbāHSK 6+

in disorder, at sixes and sevens

phrase
横三竖四héng sān shù sìHSK 6+

in disorder; in a tremendous mess

phrase
横说竖说héng shuō shù shuōHSK 6+

to explain sth over and over again; to repeat

phrase
横躺竖卧héng tǎng shù wòHSK 6+

to lie down all over the place; exhausted and in disarray

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了竖字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le shù zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "竖" in the dictionary.

爱范儿Aug 2026

拍竖屏时,按键会被挡住;想调曝光,还得从屏幕右侧拉出菜单。

pāi shù bǐng shí , àn jiàn huì bèi dǎng zhù ; xiǎng diào pù guāng , hái dé cóng bǐng mù yòu cè lā chū cài dān .

When shooting in portrait mode, the buttons are blocked; to adjust the exposure, you have to swipe in from the right side of the screen to open the menu.

少数派Aug 2026

感兴趣的朋友们可以网上搜搜评测,各种横评竖评还是挺多的。

gǎn xīng qù de péng yǒu men kě yǐ wǎng shàng sōu sōu píng cè , gè zhǒng héng píng shù píng hái shì tǐng duō de .

If you're interested, you can search online for reviews—there are quite a few in-depth and general reviews out there.

少数派Aug 2026

于是我测量好尺寸,购买了一块符合大小的洞洞板,实现了左侧竖直空间的利用。

yú shì wǒ cè liàng hǎo chǐ cùn , gòu mǎi le yī kuài fú gě dà xiǎo de dòng dòng bǎn , shí xiàn le zuǒ cè shù zhí kōng jiān de lì yòng .

So I measured the dimensions, bought a piece of perforated board that fit the space, and was able to make use of the vertical space on the left.

少数派Jul 2026

人体负责姿势稳定的小肌肉,例如前面提到的多裂肌和竖脊肌,其纤维类型以 I 型为主。

rén tǐ fù zé zī shì wěn dìng de xiǎo jī ròu , lì rú qián miàn tí dào de duō liè jī hé shù jǐ jī , qí qiàn wéi lèi xíng yǐ I xíng wéi zhǔ .

The small muscles in the human body responsible for postural stability—such as the multifidus and erector spinae muscles mentioned earlier—consist primarily of Type I muscle fibers.

SmzdmMar 2026

电子负载的铜管散热器必须竖着放,横着或倒着直接温度失控。

diàn zǐ fù zài de tóng guǎn sàn rè qì bì xū shù zhe fàng , héng zhe huò dǎo zhe zhí jiē wēn dù shī kòng .

The copper tube heat sink on the electronic load must be positioned vertically; if placed horizontally or upside down, the temperature will spiral out of control.

Tatoeba

他开始说他的秘密的时候,我们都竖起了耳朵来听。

Tā kāishǐ shuō tā de mìmì de shíhou, wǒmen dōu shùqǐ le ěrduo lái tīng.

We were all ears when he started to tell us his secret.

Tatoeba

我跟那个芬兰竖琴手怀孕了,他就是我昨晚告诉你的那个人。

Wǒ gēn nàge Fēnlán shùqín shǒu huáiyùn le, tā jiùshì wǒ zuówǎn gàosu nǐ de nàgèrén.

I got pregnant from the Finnish harpist that I told you about last night.

Character Family

立 Radical Family — Characters sharing the stand radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced shù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 竖 (shù) mean in Chinese?
竖 (shù) primarily means "to erect." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2419 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 竖 have?
竖 is written with 9 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 竖?
The radical associated with 竖 is 立 (stand). This radical appears in many characters related to stand.
What are the components of 竖?
竖 is composed of: 刂 (structural), 又 (structural), 立 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱⿰刂又立 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 竖?
Common words with 竖 include: 竖起 (shù qǐ, "to erect (a tent etc)"); 竖琴 (shù qín, "harp"); 横竖 (héng shu, "anyway"); 竖立 (shù lì, "to erect"); 竖井 (shù jǐng, "vertical shaft (for mining, ventilation systems etc)"). There are over 25 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 竖 (shù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shù: 数 (to count), 书 (book), 术 (method), 属 (category), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 竖 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 竖 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 竖 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.