搜 (sōu): to search, (bound form) to collect, to gather

搜 (sōu) is a Chinese character meaning “to search.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 叟 (phonetic). It ranks #1554 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 搜 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to search
  2. (bound form) to collect
  3. to gather

Etymology & Origin

搜

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌叟 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 搜

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
搜索verbsōu suǒto search (a place, a database, online etc)5
搜集verbsōu jíto gather6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
搜查verbsōu cháto search
搜寻verbsōu xúnto search
搜捕verbsōu bǔto hunt and arrest (fugitives)
搜身verbsōu shēnto do a body search
搜索引擎nounsōu suǒ yǐn qíngsearch engine
搜刮verbsōu guāto rake in (money)
搜罗verbsōu luóto gather
搜括sōu kuòsee 搜刮
搜神记sōu shén jìIn Search of the Supernatural, compilation of legends about spirits, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena, written...
全文搜索nounquán wén sōu suǒfull-text search
上热搜shàng rè sōu(Internet) (of a search query) to be trending
搜查令sōu chá lìngsearch warrant
情搜qíng sōuintelligence gathering
人肉搜索nounrén ròu sōu suǒto crowdsource information about sb or sth (typically as a form of vigilantism resulting in doxing)
搜索队sōu suǒ duìsearch party
36
Total compounds
75
As first character
14
As last character
11
As middle character

搜 appears in 36 compound words: 75 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 11 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 搜 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

寻xún
0.68419,764 co-occurrences
索suǒ
0.59729,181 co-occurrences
狐hú
0.5964,142 co-occurrences
划huá
0.56915,794 co-occurrences
查chá
0.55217,810 co-occurrences
计jì
0.53115,836 co-occurrences
刮guā
0.524900 co-occurrences
擎qíng
0.5114,267 co-occurrences
救jiù
0.4626,979 co-occurrences
捕bǔ
0.4563,740 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

搜索枯肠sōusuǒkūchángHSK 6+

to rack one's brain; to think extremely hard

phrase
搜寻引擎sōuxún yǐnqíngHSK 7+

search engine

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

搜照镜子,整理一下自己的仪容。

sōu zhào jìng zǐ , zhěng lǐ yī xià zì jǐ de yí róng .

Look in the mirror and tidy up your appearance.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

长和旗下PPC传遭巴拿马检察官突击搜查 路透..与港口争议无关

cháng hé qí xià P P C chuán zāo bā ná mǎ jiǎn chá guān tū jī sōu chá lù tòu . . yǔ gǎng kǒu zhēng yì wú guān

Changhe's PPC was rumored to have been raided by Panamanian prosecutors Reuters: It has nothing to do with port disputes

Am730Feb 2026

...变“寻犬侦探” 大品牌新功能让邻居镜头组搜救网(有片)

. . . biàn xún quǎn zhēn tàn dà pǐn pái xīn gōng néng ràng lín jū jìng tóu zǔ sōu jiù wǎng ( yǒu piàn )

... Become a "dog detective" new feature of a big brand to let the neighbor lens group search and rescue network (with a video)

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

遇拖吊业者坐地起价 律师:先搜证自保

yù tuō diào yè zhě zuò dì qǐ jià lǜ shī : xiān sōu zhèng zì bǎo

When the towing industry sits on the ground and raises the price Lawyer: First collect evidence to protect yourself

It之家Feb 2026

Reddit 将商品卡片带入搜索结果,让社区推荐转化为实际购买行为

R e d d i t jiāng shāng pǐn kǎ piàn dài rù sōu suǒ jié guǒ , ràng shè qū tuī jiàn zhuǎn huà wéi shí jì gòu mǎi háng wéi

Reddit brings product cards into search results, allowing community recommendations to turn into actual purchases

東森新聞Feb 2026

她退货国家地理杂志服饰“控被肉搜IG” 业者回应了

tā tuì huò guó jiā dì lǐ zá zhì fú shì kòng bèi ròu sōu I G yè zhě huí yīng le

She returned National Geographic magazine clothing "accused of being searched by meat IG" The industry responded

Tatoeba

罗德里格搜寻房间。

Luó Délǐ gé sōuxún fángjiān.

Rodrigo searched the room.

Tatoeba

仔细搜寻敌人可能藏身的灌木丛。

Zǐxì sōuxún dírén kěnéng cángshēn de guànmùcóng.

Investigate thoroughly the bushes where the enemy may be hiding.

Tatoeba

列昂尼德搜寻了网际网路。

Liè áng ní dé sōuxún le wǎngjìwǎnglù.

Leonid searched the Internet.

Tatoeba

警方正在搜寻一名逃犯。

Jǐngfāng zhèngzài sōuxún yī míng táofàn.

The police is searching for an escaped prisoner.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced sōu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 搜 (sōu) mean in Chinese?
搜 (sōu) primarily means "to search." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1554 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 搜 and 瘦?
搜 (sōu) and 瘦 (shòu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 疒 (same 叟 component).
How many strokes does 搜 have?
搜 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 搜?
The radical associated with 搜 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 搜?
搜 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 叟 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌叟 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 搜?
Common words with 搜 include: 搜查 (sōu chá, "to search"); 搜索 (sōu suǒ, "to search (a place, a database, online etc)"); 搜寻 (sōu xún, "to search"); 搜集 (sōu jí, "to gather"); 搜捕 (sōu bǔ, "to hunt and arrest (fugitives)"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 搜 (sōu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sōu: 艘 (classifier for ships), 嗽 ((bound form) to cough). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 搜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 搜 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 搜 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.