(suō): to shrink, to contract

(suō) is a Chinese character meaning “to shrink, to contract.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and 宿 (phonetic). It ranks #1296 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, thread. Its radical form (silk) appears in many related characters such as (, to connect), (lěi, to accumulate), (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to shrink, to contract

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticthread

Decomposition: ⿰纟宿 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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
verbsuō xiǎoto reduce5
verbsuō duǎnto shorten5
verbyā suōto compress6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
退tuì suōto shrink back
suō xiěabbreviation
shōu suōto pull back
nóng suōto concentrate
wěi suōto wither
suō jiǎnto cut
quán suōto curl up
wèi suōto cower
suō shuǐto shrink (in the wash)
suō yǐngminiature version of sth
shēn suōto lengthen and shorten
yā suō jīcompactor
jǐn suō(economics) to reduce
suō shǒu suō jiǎobound hand and foot (idiom)
wèi suō bù qiánto shrink back in fear (idiom)
80
Total compounds
41
As first character
34
As last character
25
As middle character

appears in 80 compound words: 41 as the first character, 34 as the last, and 25 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.

xiě
0.69162,820 co-occurrences
0.65937,902 co-occurrences
wěi
0.6576,613 co-occurrences
nóng
0.5897,272 co-occurrences
duǎn
0.54725,408 co-occurrences
jiǎn
0.53610,680 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.4533,516 co-occurrences
0.4522,508 co-occurrences
shēn
0.4294,950 co-occurrences
shōu
0.42315,696 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

jiéyīsuōshíHSK 5+

to save money by reducing daily expenses

verb
suōshǒusuōjiǎoHSK 5+

to curl up one's limbs (due to the cold); to be overcautious and constrained

phrase
suōtóu wūguīHSK 6+

cowardly person; coward; ostrich

noun
suō yī jié shíHSK 5+

to economize on clothes and food; to scrimp and save (idiom)

phrase
tōnghuò jǐnsuōHSK 5+

deflation

noun
wèisuōbùqiánHSK 7+

to hesitate to press forward; to recoil in fear

phrase
wèiwèisuōsuōHSK 7+

timid; lacking courage; cowardly

adjective

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

由于成本上升,公司决定减部分开支。

Yóuyú chéngběn shàngshēng, gōngsī juédìng suōjiǎn bùfen kāizhī.

Due to rising costs, the company decided to reduce some expenses.

NewsFeb 2026

春节9天连假冲击!永庆:2月房市交易“量近5成”

chūn jié tiān lián jiǎ chōng jī ! yǒng qìng yuè fáng shì jiāo yì liàng suō jìn chéng

The Spring Festival 9-day holiday impact! Yongqing: The volume of housing market transactions in February "shrank by nearly 50%"

NewsFeb 2026

美韩3/9自由护盾联合演习 对减规模有歧见

měi hán zì yóu hù dùn lián gě yǎn xí duì suō jiǎn guī mó yǒu qí jiàn

The U.S.-South Korea 3/9 Freedom Shield joint exercise has disagreements about the scale reduction

NewsFeb 2026

...手指都疼是怎么回事?是不是长期不用导致萎

. . . shǒu zhǐ dōu téng shì zěn má huí shì ? shì bù shì cháng qī bù yòng dǎo zhì wěi suō

... What's going on with your fingers hurting? Is it not necessary to cause atrophy in the long term?

NewsFeb 2026

中国资产大水 全球十大私募巨头难套现

zhōng guó zī chǎn dà suō shuǐ quán qiú shí dà sī mù jù tóu nán tào xiàn

China's assets have shrunk sharply, and it is difficult for the world's top ten private equity giants to cash out

NewsFeb 2026

...来了!台中女骶骨冒罕见巨型瘤 3个月神速

. . . lái le ! tái zhōng nǚ 骶 gǔ mào hǎn jiàn jù xíng liú gè yuè shén sù suō xiǎo

...Here it comes! Rare Giant Tumor on Taichung Woman's Sacrum Shrinks Remarkably in Just 3 Months

Tatoeba

金属冷却的时候会收

Jīnshǔ lěngquè de shíhou huì shōusuō.

Metals contract when they cool.

Tatoeba

她把头从窗户外回来。

Tā bǎ tóu cóng chuānghu wài suō huílai.

She withdrew her head from a window.

Tatoeba

蜗牛进壳里去了。

Wōniú suō jìn qiào lǐ qù le.

The snail retreated into its shell.

Tatoeba

这只蜗牛将触角了回去。

Zhè zhǐ wōniú jiāng chùjiǎo suō le huíqu.

The snail draws in its feelers.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced suō

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 缩 (suō) mean in Chinese?
缩 (suō) primarily means "to shrink, to contract." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1296 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 缩 have?
缩 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 缩?
The radical associated with 缩 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 缩?
缩 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 宿 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟宿 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 缩?
Common words with 缩 include: 缩小 (suō xiǎo, "to reduce"); 退缩 (tuì suō, "to shrink back"); 缩写 (suō xiě, "abbreviation"); 收缩 (shōu suō, "to pull back"); 浓缩 (nóng suō, "to concentrate"). There are over 80 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 缩 (suō)?
Several characters share the pronunciation suō: 嗦 (to suck), 所 (actually), 索 (abbr. for 索馬里|索马里, Somalia), 锁 (to lock). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 缩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 缩 and the traditional form is 縮.

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.