(): custom, convention, popular

() is a Chinese character meaning “custom.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1346 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, person. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. custom
  2. convention
  3. popular

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻谷 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
nounxí súcustom6
nounfēng súsocial custom5
nounmín súpopular custom6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
cū súvulgar
fèn shì jí súto be cynical
sú qìtacky
dī súvulgar
shì súprofane
yōng súvulgar
sú huà shuōas the proverb says
sú tàoconventional patterns
tōng súcommon
sú yǔcommon saying
bù súimpressive
sú chēngcommonly referred to as
sú huàcommon saying
rù xiāng suí súWhen you enter a village, follow the local customs (idiom)
jīng shì hài súuniversally shocking
79
Total compounds
25
As first character
54
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 79 compound words: 25 as the first character, 54 as the last, and 20 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.

0.57129,178 co-occurrences
0.4992,400 co-occurrences
chèn
0.48640,062 co-occurrences
fēng
0.44915,516 co-occurrences
yōng
0.4462,550 co-occurrences
0.4414,438 co-occurrences
mín
0.42751,676 co-occurrences
shì
0.42037,848 co-occurrences
guàn
0.4181,674 co-occurrences
hài
0.416312 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (18)

bùluòsútàoHSK 5+

to conform to no conventional pattern; to depart from convention; to be unconventional or offbeat

phrase
fánfūsúzǐHSK 6+

ordinary person

phrase
fènshìjísúHSK 7+

to be cynical; to be embittered

phrase
jī xí chéng súHSK 5+

accumulated habits become custom

phrase
jīngshìhàisúHSK 7+

extremely shocking; universally shocking

adjective
rǎn fēng xí súHSK 5+

bad habits; to get into bad habits through long custom

phrase
rùjìngsuísúHSK 5+

when in Rome, do as the Romans do

phrase
rùxiāngsuísúHSK 5+

when in Rome, do as the Romans do

phrase
shāngfēngbàisúHSK 5+

to corrupt public morals

phrase
súbùkěnàiHSK 5+

unbearably vulgar

phrase
tōngsúyìdǒngHSK 5+

easy to understand; accessible

phrase
wéi shí jué súHSK 5+

to defy the times and reject custom (idiom); in breach of current conventions

phrase

Showing 12 of 18 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位老虽然年过八旬,但身体依然硬朗。

zhè wèi lǎo sú suī rán nián guò bā xún , dàn shēn tī yī rán yìng lǎng .

Though over eighty years old, this old man remains in robust health.

LtnFeb 2026

...染!“两女争夫”影片疯传 丑闻揭发后秒还神隐

. . . rǎn ! liǎng nǚ zhēng fū yǐng piàn fēng chuán chǒu wén jiē fā hòu miǎo hái sú shén yǐn

... Dye!" Two women fighting for husbands" The film went viral, and after the scandal was exposed, it was still secular and hidden

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

让AI订酒店、买电影票成新“民

ràng A I dìng jiǔ diàn , mǎi diàn yǐng piào chéng xīn mín sú

Let AI book hotels and buy movie tickets into a new "folk custom"

LtnFeb 2026

《天机试炼场》粗发言开殉职案玩笑?全炫茂挨轰急灭火

tiān jī shì liàn chǎng cū sú fā yán kāi 殉 zhí àn wán xiào ? quán xuàn mào āi hōng jí miè huǒ

"Tianji Proving Ground" vulgar speech joke about the death of the duty? Quan Xuanmao was bombarded and quickly extinguished the fire

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...大槐树:家庭亲子游成主流 根祖文化激活年新体验

. . . dà huái shù : jiā tíng qīn zǐ yóu chéng zhǔ liú gēn zǔ wén huà jī huó nián sú xīn tǐ yàn

... Big locust tree: Family parent-child travel has become the mainstream, and the root ancestor culture activates a new experience of New Year's customs

百度新闻Feb 2026

长城脚下天天有精彩,热闹至初七!怀柔民展演引爆新..

cháng chéng jiǎo xià tiān tiān yǒu jīng cǎi , rè nào zhì chū qī ! huái róu mín sú zhǎn yǎn yǐn bào xīn . .

There is excitement at the foot of the Great Wall every day, and it is lively until the seventh day of the first month! Huairou folk performance detonated a new:

Tatoeba

根据习,新娘应该循规蹈矩。

Gēnjù xísú, xīnniáng yīnggāi xúnguīdǎojǔ.

According to custom, the bride should be compliant.

Tatoeba

国家不同,习各异。

Guójiā bùtóng, xísú gè yì.

Social customs vary from country to country.

Tatoeba

庆祝春节称过年。

Qìngzhù Chūnjié súchēng guònián.

Celebrating Spring Festival is commonly referred to as 'passing the year'.

Tatoeba

生活从不会停止,但世生活却会。

Shēnghuó cóngbù huì tíngzhǐ, dàn shìsú shēnghuó què huì.

Life never ends but earthly life does.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 俗 (sú) mean in Chinese?
俗 (sú) primarily means "custom." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1346 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 俗 and 裕?
俗 (sú) and 裕 (yù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 亻 vs 衤 (same 谷 component).
How many strokes does 俗 have?
俗 is written with 9 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 俗?
The radical associated with 俗 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 俗?
俗 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 谷 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻谷 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 俗?
Common words with 俗 include: 粗俗 (cū sú, "vulgar"); 习俗 (xí sú, "custom"); 愤世嫉俗 (fèn shì jí sú, "to be cynical"); 俗气 (sú qì, "tacky"); 低俗 (dī sú, "vulgar"). There are over 79 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 俗 (sú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sú: 苏 (revive), 酥 (flaky pastry), 诉 (to complain), 肃 (respectful), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 俗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 俗 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.