(suǒ): abbr. for 索馬里|索马里, Somalia, to search, to demand

(suǒ) is a Chinese character meaning “abbr. for 索馬里|索马里, somalia.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (silk). It ranks #805 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a rope 糸 hanging from the ceiling 冖. Its radical form (silk) appears in many related characters such as (, to connect), (lěi, to accumulate), (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation
HSK 5Radical: silk7 strokesFrequency #805

Definitions

  1. abbr. for 索馬里|索马里, Somalia
  2. to search
  3. to demand

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA rope 糸 hanging from the ceiling 冖

Decomposition: ⿱⿱十冖糸 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
线nounxiàn suǒtrail6
verbsōu suǒto search (a place, a database, online etc)5
verbtàn suǒto explore6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lè suǒto blackmail
shéng suǒrope
bì jiā suǒPicasso
suǒ ěrThor (Norse god of thunder)
lì suonimble
suǒ péito ask for compensation
sī suǒto think deeply
suǒ níSony
suǒ qǔto ask
suǒ yàoto ask for
mō suoto feel about
bǐ suǒ(loanword) peso (monetary unit)
suǒ mǎ lǐSomalia
dǎo huǒ suǒfuse (for explosive)
jiǎn suǒto retrieve (data)
100
Total compounds
31
As first character
46
As last character
23
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 31 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 23 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.

luó
0.782683,340 co-occurrences
0.716710,670 co-occurrences
sōu
0.63487,457 co-occurrences
tàn
0.598102,781 co-occurrences
0.46728,800 co-occurrences
péi
0.4585,265 co-occurrences
shéng
0.4494,332 co-occurrences
0.44072,822 co-occurrences
0.4324,152 co-occurrences
shè
0.41711 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

bùjiāsīsuǒHSK 5+

synonym of 不假思索 (bùjiǎsīsuǒ, “without hesitation; without thought”)

phrase
bùjiǎsīsuǒHSK 5+

without hesitation

phrase
jǐsuǒ dòngwùHSK 7+

chordate

noun
MòsuǒlǐníHSK 7+

Mussolini (surname)

qiāozhàlèsuǒHSK 7+

to blackmail and impose exactions on; to extort and racketeer

phrase
quánwén jiǎnsuǒHSK 5+

full-text search

noun
sōusuǒkūchángHSK 6+

to rack one's brain; to think extremely hard

phrase
suǒránguǎwèiHSK 7+

synonym of 索然無味 /索然无味 (suǒránwúwèi, “bored; unenthused”)

phrase
Āi'ěrpàsuǒHSK 7+

El Paso

àntúsuǒjìHSK 5+

to do things along rigid, conventional lines; to try and find something with the help of a clue

phrase
míngsīkǔsuǒHSK 5+

to think long and hard; to rack one's brains; to cudgel one's brains

phrase
zǎo gòu suǒ cīHSK 7+

to wash the dirt to find a defect (idiom); to find fault; to nitpick

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由7笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

suǒ zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "索" consists of seven strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

It之家Feb 2026

Reddit 将商品卡片带入搜结果,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

WorldjournalFeb 2026

福建女孩扶起骑车摔倒老人 遭赔人民币22万缠讼近1年

fú jiàn nǚ hái fú qǐ qí chē shuāi dǎo lǎo rén zāo suǒ péi rén mín bì 2 2 wàn chán sòng jìn 1 nián

Fujian girl helped up and fell on a bicycle and fell down an old man and was sued for nearly 1 year with a claim of RMB 220,000

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

马利兰盼国际承认 愿意允美国运用矿产及军...

suǒ mǎ lì lán pàn guó jì chéng rèn yuàn yì yǔn měi guó yùn yòng kuàng chǎn jí jūn . . .

Somaliland hopes for international recognition and willingness to allow the United States to use minerals and military...

RfiFeb 2026

马利兰官员:愿意允美国运用矿产及军事基地

suǒ mǎ lì lán guān yuán : yuàn yì yǔn měi guó yùn yòng kuàng chǎn jí jūn shì jī dì

Somaliland official: willing to allow the United States to use minerals and military bases

東方日報Feb 2026

...周秀娜劲敌”瑜伽租场发生意外 学生整亲头5万心灵补偿

. . . zhōu xiù 娜 jìn dí 瑜 伽 zū chǎng fā shēng yì wài xué shēng zhěng qīn tóu suǒ 5 wàn xīn líng bǔ cháng

... Zhou Xiuna's rival "had an accident in the yoga rental room, and the student asked for 50,000 yuan in spiritual compensation

Tatoeba

海洋的深层仍然几乎未被探

Hǎiyáng de shēn céng réngrán jīhū wèi bèi tànsuǒ.

The deep layers of the ocean are still almost unexplored.

Tatoeba

毕加是个人尽皆知的著名艺术家。

Bìjiāsuǒ shì gèrén jìnjiē zhī de zhùmíng yìshùjiā.

Picasso is a famous artist whom everyone knows.

Tatoeba

她被视为日本的毕加

Tā bèi shìwéi Rìběn de Bìjiāsuǒ.

She is known as the Japanese Picasso.

Tatoeba

这封信是揭开谜团的唯一线

Zhè fēng xìn shì jiēkāi mítuán de wéiyī xiànsuǒ.

This letter is the only key to the mystery.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced suǒ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 索 (suǒ) mean in Chinese?
索 (suǒ) primarily means "abbr. for 索馬里|索马里, somalia." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #805 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 索 have?
索 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 索?
The radical associated with 索 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are common words containing 索?
Common words with 索 include: 线索 (xiàn suǒ, "trail"); 搜索 (sōu suǒ, "to search (a place, a database, online etc)"); 勒索 (lè suǒ, "to blackmail"); 探索 (tàn suǒ, "to explore"); 绳索 (shéng suǒ, "rope"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 索 (suǒ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation suǒ: 嗦 (to suck), 缩 (to shrink, to contract), 所 (actually), 锁 (to lock). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 索 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 索 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.