恕 (shù): to forgive

恕 (shù) is a Chinese character meaning “to forgive.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 如 (phonetic) and 心 (semantic). It ranks #2249 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 恕 heart. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 忄 heart9 strokesFrequency #2249如 phonetic心 semantic

Definitions

  1. to forgive

Etymology & Origin

恕

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿱如心 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:如phonetic心semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
宽恕kuān shùto forgive
饶恕ráo shùto forgive
恕罪shù zuìplease forgive me
请求宽恕qǐng qiú kuān shùto sue for mercy
容恕róng shùto forgive
恕我冒昧shù wǒ mào mèiif I may be so bold
忠恕zhōng shùloyalty and consideration for others
乞恕qǐ shùto beg forgiveness
8
Total compounds
25
As first character
75
As last character
0
As middle character

恕 appears in 8 compound words: 25 as the first character, 75 as the last, and 0 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 恕 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

饶ráo
0.5591,374 co-occurrences
宽kuān
0.5483,888 co-occurrences
谦qiān
0.447384 co-occurrences
忠zhōng
0.4211,404 co-occurrences
仁rén
0.4051,416 co-occurrences
罪zuì
0.3761,110 co-occurrences
铭míng
0.369216 co-occurrences
兴xīng
0.346588 co-occurrences
求qiú
0.3401,206 co-occurrences
刘liú
0.340528 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

虽然失败了，但他恕不气馁，继续努力。

suī rán shī bài le , dàn tā shù bù qì něi , jì xù nǔ lì .

Though he failed, he refused to be discouraged and continued to persevere.

Tatoeba

人皆有错，唯圣者能恕。

Rén jiē yǒu cuò, wéi shèngzhě néng shù.

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Tatoeba

公主向皇帝请求饶恕。

Gōngzhǔ xiàng huángdì qǐngqiú ráoshù.

The princess begged forgiveness from the emperor.

Tatoeba

恕我直言：你犯了一个错。

Shù wǒ zhíyán: nǐ fàn le yī gè cuò.

Forgive me for being frank. You have erred.

Character Family

忄 Radical Family — Characters sharing the heart radical

悲bēi憋biē惩chéng愁chóu慈cí怠dài德dé恶è恩ēn憨hān

Related Characters

忙máng快kuài怎zěn息xī您nín慢màn必bì忽hū态tài怕pà

Homophones — Characters pronounced shù

书shū叔shū舒shū输shū熟shú属shǔ术shù束shù树shù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 恕 (shù) mean in Chinese?
恕 (shù) primarily means "to forgive." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2249 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 恕 and 絮?
恕 (shù) and 絮 (xù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 忄 vs 纟 (same 如 component).
How many strokes does 恕 have?
恕 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 恕?
The radical associated with 恕 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 恕?
恕 is composed of: 如 (phonetic), 心 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱如心 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 恕?
Common words with 恕 include: 宽恕 (kuān shù, "to forgive"); 饶恕 (ráo shù, "to forgive"); 恕罪 (shù zuì, "please forgive me"); 请求宽恕 (qǐng qiú kuān shù, "to sue for mercy"); 容恕 (róng shù, "to forgive"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 恕 (shù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shù: 书 (abbr. for 書經|书经), 叔 (uncle), 舒 (to stretch), 输 (to transport, to lose), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 恕 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 恕 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.