梳 (shū): to comb, (bound form) a comb

梳 (shū) is a Chinese character meaning “to comb.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 㐬 (phonetic). It ranks #2578 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 梳 wood. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to comb
  2. (bound form) a comb

Etymology & Origin

梳

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木㐬 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
梳子nounshū zicomb
梳理verbshū lǐto comb
梳洗verbshū xǐto wash and groom oneself
梳头verbshū tóuto comb one's hair
梳妆台nounshū zhuāng táidressing table
梳妆verbshū zhuāngto dress and groom oneself
头梳nountóu shūcomb
梳化shū huà(film and TV) hair and makeup
梳弄shū nòng(old) to deflorate a prostitute
梳乎厘nounshū hū lí(HK) (loanword) soufflé
梳妆室shū zhuāng shìboudoir
爬梳verbpá shūto comb through (historical documents etc)
梳芙厘shū fú lísoufflé (loanword)
梳篦nounshū bìcombs (in general)
燕梳nounyàn shū(dialect) insurance (loanword)
15
Total compounds
80
As first character
20
As last character
0
As middle character

梳 appears in 15 compound words: 80 as the first character, 20 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 梳 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

妆zhuāng
0.571354 co-occurrences
辫biàn
0.47336 co-occurrences
邦bāng
0.457952 co-occurrences
洗xǐ
0.414252 co-occurrences
棉mián
0.38992 co-occurrences
咀jǔ
0.37244 co-occurrences
巴bā
0.371878 co-occurrences
毛máo
0.363274 co-occurrences
翼yì
0.361204 co-occurrences
齿chǐ
0.35964 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

爷爷在门前种了一棵梳苗,现在已经长得很高了。

yé yé zài mén qián zhǒng le yī kē shū miáo , xiàn zài yǐ jīng cháng dé hěn gāo le .

Grandpa planted a comb tree in front of the house, and now it has grown very tall.

SmzdmApr 2026

deepseek-v4的45页文档梳理

d e e p s e e k v 4 de 4 5 xié wén dàng shū lǐ

A Summary of the 45-Page deepseek-v4 Documentation

東方日報Apr 2026

高密度刷毛梳 告别尴尬油头

gāo mì dù shuā máo shū gào bié gān gà yóu tóu

High-Density Bristle Brush: Say Goodbye to Greasy Hair

The Beijing NewsApr 2026

中国酒店集团解读,旗下品牌全梳理

zhōng guó jiǔ diàn jí tuán jiě dòu , qí xià pǐn pái quán shū lǐ

An Overview of Chinese Hotel Groups: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Brands

TvbsMar 2026

发质竟是好命的象征?日本爆红“顺发梳” 染烫受损也能用

fā zhì jìng shì hǎo mìng de xiàng zhēng ? rì běn bào hóng shùn fā shū rǎn tàng shòu sǔn yě néng yòng

Is Beautiful Hair a Sign of Good Fortune? Japan’s Viral “Smooth Hair Comb” Works Even on Damaged Hair from Dyeing and Perming

Am730Feb 2026

网上热话|IKEA梳化被“长占” 官方终摆告示牌 网民猜测:...

wǎng shàng rè huà I K E A shū huà bèi cháng zhàn guān fāng zhōng bǎi gào shì pái wǎng mín cāi cè : . . .

Hot talk on the Internet| IKEA sofa was "occupied for a long time" The official final sign netizens speculated:

Tatoeba

在你出门之前,把你的头发梳一梳。

Zài nǐ chūmén zhīqián, bǎ nǐ de tóufa shū yī shū.

Comb your hair before you go out.

Tatoeba

保罗用手从头发间梳过。

Bǎoluó yòng shǒu cóngtóu fà jiān shū guo.

Paul ran his hand through his hair.

Tatoeba

她把梳子放在抽屉里面。

Tā bǎ shūzi fàng zài chōuti lǐmiàn.

She put the comb in the drawer.

Tatoeba

她在晚饭前把自己梳洗打扮了一下。

Tā zài wǎnfàn qián bǎ zìjǐ shūxǐ dǎban le yīxià.

She freshened herself up before supper.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (wood) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced shū

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 梳 (shū) mean in Chinese?
梳 (shū) primarily means "to comb." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2578 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 梳 and 流?
梳 (shū) and 流 (liú) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 氵 (same 㐬 component).
How many strokes does 梳 have?
梳 is written with 11 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 梳?
The radical associated with 梳 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 梳?
梳 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 㐬 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木㐬 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 梳?
Common words with 梳 include: 梳子 (shū zi, "comb"); 梳理 (shū lǐ, "to comb"); 梳洗 (shū xǐ, "to wash and groom oneself"); 梳头 (shū tóu, "to comb one's hair"); 梳妆台 (shū zhuāng tái, "dressing table"). There are over 15 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 梳 (shū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shū: 数 (to count), 书 (book), 术 (method), 属 (category), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 梳 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 梳 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 梳 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.