嗽 (sòu): (bound form) to cough

嗽 (sòu) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to cough.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 欶 (phonetic). It ranks #2640 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 嗽 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to cough

Etymology & Origin

嗽

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口欶 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 嗽

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
咳嗽verbké souto cough4
1
Total compounds
0
As first character
100
As last character
0
As middle character

嗽 appears in 1 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 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 嗽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

咳ké
0.9172,771 co-occurrences
嚏tì
0.62358 co-occurrences
痰tán
0.615120 co-occurrences
喘chuǎn
0.54590 co-occurrences
涕tì
0.50244 co-occurrences
咽yān
0.45336 co-occurrences
喉hóu
0.44864 co-occurrences
烧shāo
0.44194 co-occurrences
喷pēn
0.42760 co-occurrences
症zhèng
0.426186 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请嗽下这杯茶,解解渴再继续工作。

qǐng sòu xià zhè bēi chá , xiè xiè kě zài jì xù gōng zuò .

Please take a sip of this tea to quench your thirst before continuing your work.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

经常咽部干、肺燥咳嗽、爱清嗓子的人,更适合熟桃。

jīng cháng yān bù gān , fèi zào hāi sòu , ài qīng sǎng zǐ de rén , gēng shì gě shú táo .

Cooked peaches are particularly suitable for people who often experience a dry throat, have a dry cough, or frequently clear their throats.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

比如吃冷饮再加上吹空调,有可能开始出现咳嗽。

bǐ rú chī lěng yǐn zài jiā shàng chuī kōng diào , yǒu kě néng kāi shǐ chū xiàn hāi sòu .

For example, eating cold treats while sitting in an air-conditioned room may cause you to start coughing.

奇客SolidotJul 2026

人们不会因为坐在咳嗽者旁边而感染埃博拉病毒。

rén men bù huì yīn wéi zuò zài hāi sòu zhě páng biān ér gǎn rǎn Āi bó lā bìng dú .

People cannot contract the Ebola virus simply by sitting next to someone who is coughing.

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

...淳淳曾罹“非结核分枝杆菌”是什么?医:咳嗽拖很久没好是警讯

. . . chún chún céng 罹 fēi jié hé fēn zhī gān jūn shì shén má ? yī : hāi sòu tuō hěn jiǔ méi hǎo shì jǐng xùn

...What is the "nontuberculous mycobacterium" that Chun Chun contracted? Doctor: A persistent cough that won’t go away is a warning sign.

99 健康网Mar 2026

...年人子宫下垂的治疗方式有哪些?控制慢性咳嗽减少腹压吗

. . . nián rén zǐ gōng xià chuí de zhì liáo fāng shì yǒu nǎ xiē ? kòng zhì màn xìng hāi sòu jiǎn shǎo fù yā ma

... What are the treatment methods for uterine ptosis in young people? Does controlling chronic cough reduce abdominal pressure?

Tatoeba

爱和咳嗽是无法隐藏的。

ài hé késou shì wúfǎ yǐncáng de.

Love and cough cannot be hidden.

Tatoeba

咳嗽糖浆有股甘草的味道。

Késou tángjiāng yǒu gǔ gāncǎo de wèidao.

The cough syrup has a licorice flavoring.

Tatoeba

咳嗽什么帮好起来?

Késou shénme bāng hǎoqǐlai?

What helps cure a cough?

Tatoeba

咳嗽的时候会痛吗?

Késou de shíhou huì tòng ma?

Does it hurt when you cough?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced sòu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 嗽 (sòu) mean in Chinese?
嗽 (sòu) primarily means "(bound form) to cough." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2640 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 嗽 have?
嗽 is written with 14 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 嗽?
The radical associated with 嗽 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 嗽?
嗽 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 欶 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口欶 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 嗽?
Common words with 嗽 include: 咳嗽 (ké sou, "to cough"). There are over 1 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 嗽 (sòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sòu: 搜 (to search), 艘 (classifier for ships). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 嗽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 嗽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 嗽 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.