(shù): (bound form) to state, to tell, to narrate, to relate

(shù) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to state.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #674 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, walk. Its radical form (walk) appears in many related characters such as (biān, side), (guò, to pass, past), (hái, still, return).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to state
  2. to tell
  3. to narrate
  4. to relate

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwalk

Decomposition: ⿺辶术 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
verbmiáo shùto describe5
verbjiǎng shùto talk about5
verbxù shùto relate (a story or information)6
adjectiveshàng shùaforementioned6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
chén shùto state
chǎn shùto expound (a position)
kǒu shùto dictate
biǎo shùto express
fù shùto repeat (one's own words or sb else's)
shù shuōto recount
yǐn shùto quote
zhuǎn shùto pass on (stories)
lùn shùtreatise
jì shùto write an account (of events)
zōng shàng suǒ shùto summarize
píng shùto comment on
zì shùto recount in one's own words
gài shùoverview
chén shù jùdeclarative sentence
43
Total compounds
7
As first character
86
As last character
7
As middle character

appears in 43 compound words: 7 as the first character, 86 as the last, and 7 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.

miáo
0.857476,613 co-occurrences
jiǎng
0.62674,657 co-occurrences
chǎn
0.61916,270 co-occurrences
gài
0.55661,896 co-occurrences
0.55525,257 co-occurrences
zhāi
0.4628,406 co-occurrences
shàng
0.443189,078 co-occurrences
xiáng
0.4338,086 co-occurrences
lùn
0.40925,080 co-occurrences
chén
0.40817,100 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

zōngshàngsuǒshùHSK 5+

in conclusion; in summary

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他在报告中详细叙了整个事件的过程。

Tā zài bàogào zhōng xiángxì xùshù le zhěng gè shìjiàn de guòchéng.

He detailed the entire process of the incident in his report.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

辉达执行长黄仁勋称SaaS末日论错误,认为存在“深度误解”

huī dá zhí háng cháng huáng rén xūn chèn S a a S mò rì lùn shù cuò wù , rèn wéi cún zài shēn dù wù jiě

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the SaaS doomsday discourse wrong, believing there was a "deep misunderstanding"

NewsFeb 2026

子宫回声不均匀什么意思?B超单上这个描常见吗

zǐ gōng huí shēng bù jūn yún shén má yì sī ? chāo dān shàng zhè gè miáo shù cháng jiàn ma

What does uneven uterine echo mean? Is this description common on the B-ultrasound list?

中国军网Feb 2026

...委员、书记处书记等向党中央和习近平总书记

. . . wěi yuán , shū jì chǔ shū jì děng xiàng dǎng zhōng yāng hé xí jìn píng zǒng shū jì shù zhí

... Members and secretaries of the Secretariat reported to the Party Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping

Investing 香港Feb 2026

...ties反驳Citrini对AI的末日论

. . . t i e s fǎn bó C i t r i n i duì A I de mò rì lùn shù

... ties refutes Citrini's doomsday narrative on AI

Hk01.comFeb 2026

佘詩曼喜遇周潤發變心心眼 發長文講兩次相遇緣份難掩激動之情

佘 詩 曼 xǐ yù zhōu 潤 發 變 xīn xīn yǎn 發 長 wén 講 shù 兩 cì xiāng yù 緣 fèn 難 yǎn jī 動 zhī qíng

Tavia Yeung Happily Meets Chow Yun-fat, Becomes a Star-struck Fan; Writes a Long Post Detailing Their Two Encounters, Unable to Hide Her Excitement.

Tatoeba

他简单地阐了他的理由。

Tā jiǎndān de chǎnshù le tā de lǐyóu.

He gave his reasons in brief.

Tatoeba

我开始怀疑他陈的准确性。

Wǒ kāishǐ huáiyí tā chénshù de zhǔnquèxìng.

I began to doubt the accuracy of his statement.

Tatoeba

他详细地叙了那场意外的经过。

Tā xiángxì de xù shù le nà chǎng yìwài de jīngguò.

He gave a detailed description of the accident.

Tatoeba

用自己的语言把课文内容复

Yòng zìjǐ de yǔyán bǎ kèwén nèiróng fùshù.

Use your own words to retell the content of the lesson.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 述 (shù) mean in Chinese?
述 (shù) primarily means "(bound form) to state." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #674 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 述 have?
述 is written with 8 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 述?
The radical associated with 述 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 述?
述 is composed of: 辶 (semantic), 术 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶术 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 述?
Common words with 述 include: 描述 (miáo shù, "to describe"); 陈述 (chén shù, "to state"); 讲述 (jiǎng shù, "to talk about"); 叙述 (xù shù, "to relate (a story or information)"); 阐述 (chǎn shù, "to expound (a position)"). There are over 43 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 述 (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 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 述 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 述 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.