苏 (sū): revive

苏 (sū) is a Chinese character meaning “revive.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 办 (structural). It ranks #590 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 苏 plant. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. revive

Etymology & Origin

苏

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹办 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
苏格兰proper-nounsū gé lánScotland
苏联proper-nounsū liánSoviet Union, 1922-1991
苏打nounsū dá(loanword) soda
苏珊proper-nounsū shānSusan (name)
复苏fù sūto recover (health, economic)
苏菲proper-nounsū fēi(name) Sophie
苏醒sū xǐngto come to
苏丹nounsū dān(loanword) sultan
苏黎世proper-nounsū lí shìZurich, Switzerland
密苏里proper-nounmì sū lǐMissouri
明尼苏达míng ní sū dáMinnesota, USA
密苏里州mì sū lǐ zhōuMissouri
苏格拉底sū gé lā dǐSocrates (469-399 BC), Greek philosopher
苏俄proper-nounsū éSoviet Russia
苏瓦proper-nounsū wǎSuva, capital of Fiji
100
Total compounds
59
As first character
21
As last character
20
As middle character

苏 appears in 100 compound words: 59 as the first character, 21 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 苏 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

联lián
0.68294,984 co-occurrences
江jiāng
0.54661,658 co-occurrences
珊shān
0.54214 co-occurrences
维wéi
0.49819,426 co-occurrences
兰lán
0.49519,358 co-occurrences
省shěng
0.48430,422 co-occurrences
鸣míng
0.46418 co-occurrences
丹dān
0.46317,875 co-occurrences
州zhōu
0.42833,474 co-occurrences
格gé
0.42521,538 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

密苏里州mì sū lǐ zhōuHSK 7+

Missouri

phrase
苏打饼干sūdá bǐnggānHSK 7+

soda cracker; saltine

noun
苏门达腊SūméndálàHSK 7+

Alternative name for 蘇門答臘/苏门答腊 (Sūméndálà, “Sumatra”).

苏门答腊SūméndálàHSK 7+

Sumatra (the largest island entirely in Indonesia and the world’s sixth largest island)

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing 苏.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

经济复苏的迹象越来越明显。

Jīngjì fùsū de jìxiàng yuèláiyuè míngxiǎn.

Signs of economic recovery are becoming increasingly obvious.

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

韩沙率18国会议员联署 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

百度新闻Feb 2026

你还是曾经那个少年!苏翊鸣斩获中国队首金

nǐ hái shì céng jīng nā gě shǎo nián ! sū 翊 míng zhǎn huò zhōng guó duì shǒu jīn

You're still the same teenager! Su Yiming wins China's first gold.

百度新闻Feb 2026

金牌,苏翊鸣送给自己最好的生日礼物!

jīn pái , sū 翊 míng sòng gěi zì jǐ zuì hǎo de shēng rì lǐ wù !

Gold Medal: Su Yiming's Best Birthday Gift to Himself!

百度新闻Feb 2026

苏翊鸣第二滑平稳输出,继续加油!

sū 翊 míng dì èr huá píng wěn shū chū , jì xù jiā yóu !

Su Yiming delivered a steady second run—keep it up!

百度新闻Feb 2026

冬奥会|苏翊鸣夺金!

dōng ào huì sū 翊 míng duó jīn !

Winter Olympics | Su Yiming Wins Gold!

Tatoeba

英格兰与苏格兰相邻。

Yīnggélán yǔ Sūgélán xiānglín.

England and Scotland are neighbours.

Tatoeba

夏天的苏格兰怎么样?

Xiàtiān de Sūgélán zěnmeyàng?

What's Scotland like in summer?

Tatoeba

你曾经爬过阿苏山吗?

Nǐ céngjīng pá guo āsū Shān ma?

Have you ever climbed Mt. Aso?

Tatoeba

苏联学家研究什么呢?

Sūlián xué jiā yánjiū shénme ne?

What does a Sovietologist study?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (plant) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced sū

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 苏 (sū) mean in Chinese?
苏 (sū) primarily means "revive." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #590 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 苏 have?
苏 is written with 7 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 苏?
The radical associated with 苏 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 苏?
苏 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 办 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹办 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 苏?
Common words with 苏 include: 苏格兰 (sū gé lán, "Scotland"); 苏联 (sū lián, "Soviet Union, 1922-1991"); 苏打 (sū dá, "(loanword) soda"); 苏珊 (sū shān, "Susan (name)"); 复苏 (fù sū, "to recover (health, economic)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 苏 (sū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation sū: 诉 (to complain), 速 (fast, speed), 素 (raw silk), 俗 (custom), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 苏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 苏 and the traditional form is 囌.

Practice writing 苏 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.