抒 (shū): to express, to give expression to, to relieve

抒 (shū) is a Chinese character meaning “to express.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (phonetic) and 予 (semantic). It ranks #2782 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 抒 give. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 扌 hand7 strokesFrequency #2782扌 phonetic予 semantic

Definitions

  1. to express
  2. to give expression to
  3. to relieve

Etymology & Origin

抒

pictophoneticgive

Decomposition: ⿰扌予 (layout: left-right)

Components:扌phonetic予semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
抒情shū qíngto express emotion
抒发shū fāto express (an emotion)
抒情诗shū qíng shīlyric poetry
各抒己见gè shū jǐ jiàneveryone gives their own view
直抒胸臆zhí shū xiōng yìto speak one's mind
抒写shū xiěto express (emotions in prose)
抒怀shū huáito express emotion
7
Total compounds
71
As first character
0
As last character
29
As middle character

抒 appears in 7 compound words: 71 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 29 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 抒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

情qíng
0.58823,826 co-occurrences
诗shī
0.5203,096 co-occurrences
歌gē
0.4264,896 co-occurrences
曲qū
0.4075,154 co-occurrences
咏yǒng
0.393114 co-occurrences
怀huái
0.379438 co-occurrences
愁chóu
0.378108 co-occurrences
慢màn
0.377516 co-occurrences
吟yín
0.375138 co-occurrences
胸xiōng
0.371312 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

各抒己见gèshūjǐjiànHSK 7+

each expresses their own views

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈抒着孩子的手，慢慢地过马路。

mā mā shū zhe hái zǐ de shǒu , màn màn dì guò mǎ lù .

Mom held her child's hand as they slowly crossed the street.

Tatoeba

我喜欢抒情诗多于史诗。

Wǒ xǐhuan shūqíngshī duōyú shǐshī.

I like lyric better than epic.

Character Family

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

报bào才cái打dǎ护hù换huàn拉lā拿ná手shǒu挺tǐng找zhǎo

Related Characters

手shǒu打dǎ找zhǎo拿ná才cái护hù报bào拉lā挺tǐng换huàn

Homophones — Characters pronounced shū

书shū叔shū舒shū输shū熟shú属shǔ术shù束shù树shù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 抒 (shū) mean in Chinese?
抒 (shū) primarily means "to express." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2782 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 抒 and 接?
抒 (shū) and 接 (jiē) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 抒 (give) vs 接 (receive).
How many strokes does 抒 have?
抒 is written with 7 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 抒?
The radical associated with 抒 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 抒?
抒 is composed of: 扌 (phonetic), 予 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌予 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 抒?
Common words with 抒 include: 抒情 (shū qíng, "to express emotion"); 抒发 (shū fā, "to express (an emotion)"); 抒情诗 (shū qíng shī, "lyric poetry"); 各抒己见 (gè shū jǐ jiàn, "everyone gives their own view"); 直抒胸臆 (zhí shū xiōng yì, "to speak one's mind"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 抒 (shū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shū: 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 抒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 抒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 抒 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.