(shǔ): office, bureau, (Taiwan pr.) to sign

(shǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “office.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1371 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, network. Its radical form (net) appears in many related characters such as (wǎng, net), (zhì, to install), (, to punish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. office
  2. bureau
  3. (Taiwan pr.) to sign

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticnetwork

Decomposition: ⿱罒者 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
qiān shǔto sign (an agreement)
bù shǔto dispose
jǐng shǔpolice station (abbr. for 警察署[jing3 cha2 shu3])
shǔ míngto sign (a signature)
zǒng shǔgeneral office
jǐng chá shǔpolice station
gōng shǔgovernment office
lián shǔjoint signatures (on a letter or declaration)
hǎi guān zǒng shǔGeneral Administration of Customs (GAC)
guān shǔofficial institution
lián hé guó kāi fā jì huà shǔUnited Nations Development Program
měi guó tài kōng zǒng shǔNASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
dé guó xué shù jiāo liú zǒng shǔGerman Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (Tw)
xíng zhèng gōng shǔadministrative office
nèi zhèng bù jǐng zhèng shǔNational Police Agency (Tw)
32
Total compounds
6
As first character
94
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 32 compound words: 6 as the first character, 94 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

qiān
0.696111,913 co-occurrences
0.59511 co-occurrences
jǐng
0.50761,896 co-occurrences
lián
0.46214,616 co-occurrences
chá
0.45736,030 co-occurrences
biàn
0.4567,638 co-occurrences
zhuān
0.43927,150 co-occurrences
0.433144,915 co-occurrences
gōng
0.38283,910 co-occurrences
0.38051,402 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

Liánzhèng GōngshǔHSK 7+

the Independent Commission Against Corruption; the Commission Against Corruption

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě shǔ zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "署" carries different meanings in classical Chinese.

東方日報Feb 2026

研自动车商用载客 点对点接驳高铁机铁

yùn shǔ yán zì dòng chē shāng yòng zài kè diǎn duì diǎn jiē bó gāo tiě jī tiě

The Department of Transport has developed a point-to-point connection to high-speed rail and railways for commercial passenger vehicles

東方日報Feb 2026

美国突在约旦军事基地 部大量战机

měi guó tū zài yuē dàn jūn shì jī dì bù shǔ dà liàng zhàn jī

The United States suddenly deployed a large number of fighter jets at Jordanian military bases

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

韩沙率18国会议员联 挺阿末三苏里任国盟主席

hán shā lǜ 1 8 guó huì yì yuán lián shǔ tǐng ā mò sān sū lǐ rèn guó méng zhǔ xí

Han Sha led 18 members of parliament to jointly sign the appointment of Ahmad Sansuri as the chairman of the National League

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

“启德海湾”第2期部短期推出 冀《预算案》推利好楼市措施

qǐ dé hǎi wān dì 2 qī bù shǔ duǎn qī tuī chū 冀 yù suàn àn tuī lì hǎo lóu shì cuò shī

The second phase of "Kai Tak Bay" will be launched in the short term, hoping that the "Budget" will promote measures that will benefit the property market

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

国教投1.4亿 助偏乡839校活化教学

guó jiào shǔ tóu 1 . 4 yì zhù piān xiāng 8 3 9 jiào huó huà jiào xué

The State Education Administration invested 140 million yuan to help 839 schools in rural areas revitalize teaching

Tatoeba

美国太空总曾计画拯救世界。

Měiguó tàikōng zǒngshǔ céng jìhuà zhěngjiù shìjiè.

NASA had a plan to save the world.

Tatoeba

这就是他用来签那份文件的笔了。

Zhè jiù shì tāyòng lái qiānshǔ nà fèn wénjiàn de bǐ le.

This is the pen that he signed the document with.

Tatoeba

我有个朋友在美国太空总工作。

Wǒ yǒu gè péngyou zài Měiguó tàikōng zǒngshǔ gōngzuò.

I have a friend who works for NASA.

Tatoeba

1978年中国和日本签了和平条约。

1978 niánzhōng guó hé Rìběn qiānshǔ le hépíngtiáoyuē.

In 1978 a peace treaty was concluded between Japan and China.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the net radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced shǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 署 (shǔ) mean in Chinese?
署 (shǔ) primarily means "office." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1371 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 署 and 煮?
署 (shǔ) and 煮 (zhǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 罒 vs 灬 (same 者 component).
How many strokes does 署 have?
署 is written with 13 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 署?
The radical associated with 署 is 罒 (net). This radical appears in many characters related to net.
What are the components of 署?
署 is composed of: 罒 (semantic), 者 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱罒者 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 署?
Common words with 署 include: 签署 (qiān shǔ, "to sign (an agreement)"); 部署 (bù shǔ, "to dispose"); 警署 (jǐng shǔ, "police station (abbr. for 警察署[jing3 cha2 shu3])"); 署名 (shǔ míng, "to sign (a signature)"); 总署 (zǒng shǔ, "general office"). There are over 32 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 署 (shǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shǔ: 暑 (heat, summer). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 署 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 署 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.