(shǔ): heat, summer

(shǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “heat, summer.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2597 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, sun. Its radical form (sun) appears in many related characters such as (, sun, day), (zǎo, early, morning), (shí, time, hour).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. heat, summer

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿱日者 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounshǔ jiàsummer vacation4
noun/verbzhòng shǔto suffer heat exhaustion6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shǔ qīsummer vacation time
bì shǔto be away for the summer holidays
kù shǔintense heat
xiāo shǔto spend a summer holiday
shǔ tiānhot (summer) day
shǔ qī xué xiàosummer school
fàng shǔ jiàto be on summer vacation
fáng shǔ jiàng wēnto prevent heatstroke and reduce temperature
dà shǔDashu or Great Heat, 12th of the 24 solar terms 二十四節氣|二十四节气 23rd July-6th August
bì shǔ shān zhuāngmountain resort
qù shǔto beat the summer heat
xiǎo shǔXiaoshu or Lesser Heat, 11th of the 24 solar terms 二十四節氣|二十四节气 7th-22nd July
jiě shǔto beat the summer heat
chǔ shǔChushu or End of Heat, 14th of the 24 solar terms 二十四節氣|二十四节气 23rd August-7th September
shòu shǔto suffer heatstroke
24
Total compounds
38
As first character
50
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 24 compound words: 38 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 13 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.

jiǎ
0.65727,884 co-occurrences
hán
0.5976,144 co-occurrences
0.5427,306 co-occurrences
0.4861,833 co-occurrences
shù
0.457678 co-occurrences
0.42715,102 co-occurrences
0.39390 co-occurrences
dàng
0.382606 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.375318 co-occurrences
zhuāng
0.3551,092 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

Bìshǔ ShānzhuāngHSK 6+

Chengde Mountain Resort

fáng shǔ jiàng wēnHSK 5+

to prevent heatstroke and reduce temperature

phrase
shǔqī xuéxiàoHSK 4+

summer school

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

假期间,很多学生会选择参加夏令营或者旅游。

Shǔjià qījiān, hěn duō xuéshēng huì xuǎnzé cānjiā xiàlìngyíng huòzhě lǚyóu.

During summer vacation, many students choose to attend summer camps or travel.

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

...孩童被留在车内身亡 卫生部发警惕吁严防中

. . . hái tóng bèi liú zài chē nèi shēn wáng wèi shēng bù fā jǐng tì xū yán fáng zhōng shǔ

...Child Dies After Being Left in Car; Health Ministry Issues Warning to Prevent Heatstroke

Am730Mar 2026

MC张天赋预告假开骚有意骚肌 有望与甄子丹再合作演《叶...

M C zhāng tiān fù yù gào shǔ jiǎ kāi sāo yǒu yì sāo jī yǒu wàng yǔ 甄 zǐ dān zài gě zuò yǎn xié . . .

MC Zhang Tianfu Teases Summer Show, Hints at Showing Off His Muscles; Expected to Reunite with Donnie Yen for *The...*

StheadlineMar 2026

...”尽现引遐想 S曲线喷血身材提早为眼球消

. . . jǐn xiàn yǐn 遐 xiǎng S qū xiàn pēn xiě shēn cái tí zǎo wéi yǎn qiú xiāo shǔ

...”Stirs the imagination: A figure with killer curves that’s sure to cool the eyes early in the season

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Mar 2026

美西罕见高温预计持续至周末 居民需严防中

měi xī hǎn jiàn gāo wēn yù jì chí xù zhì zhōu mò jū mín xū yán fáng zhōng shǔ

Unusual heat in the Western U.S. is expected to persist through the weekend; residents should take precautions against heatstroke

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

...气料干燥炎热 资源部长吁民众多加留意防中

. . . qì liào gān zào yán rè zī yuán bù cháng xū mín zhòng duō jiā liú yì fáng zhōng shǔ

...With the air dry and hot, the Minister of Resources urges the public to take extra precautions against heatstroke

Tatoeba

轻井泽是著名的避胜地。

Qīngjǐngzé shì zhùmíng de bìshǔ shèngdì.

Karuizawa is famous as a summer resort.

Tatoeba

他们去了爱丁堡避

Tāmen qù le àidīngbǎo bìshǔ.

They went to Edinburgh to escape from the summer heat.

Tatoeba

你是怎么避开这酷的?

Nǐ shì zěnme bìkāi zhè kùshǔ de?

How are you keeping off this intense heat?

Tatoeba

仲有五日就放假喇。

Zhòng yǒu wǔ rì jiù fàng shǔjià lā.

We have five days to go before the summer vacation.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 暑 (shǔ) mean in Chinese?
暑 (shǔ) primarily means "heat, summer." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2597 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 暑 and 煮?
暑 (shǔ) and 煮 (zhǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 日 vs 灬 (same 者 component).
How many strokes does 暑 have?
暑 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 暑?
The radical associated with 暑 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 暑?
暑 is composed of: 日 (semantic), 者 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱日者 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 暑?
Common words with 暑 include: 暑假 (shǔ jià, "summer vacation"); 暑期 (shǔ qī, "summer vacation time"); 避暑 (bì shǔ, "to be away for the summer holidays"); 中暑 (zhòng shǔ, "to suffer heat exhaustion"); 酷暑 (kù shǔ, "intense heat"). There are over 24 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 暑 (shǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shǔ: 署 (office). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 暑 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 暑 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.