(wèi): vassal state during the Zhou Dynasty (1066–221 BC), located in present-day Henan and Hebei Provinces, to guard, to protect

(wèi) is a Chinese character meaning “vassal state during the zhou dynasty (1066–221 bc), located in present-day henan and hebei provinces.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #669 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. vassal state during the Zhou Dynasty (1066–221 BC), located in present-day Henan and Hebei Provinces
  2. to guard
  3. to protect

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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
adjective/nounwèi shēnghygienic4
nounwèi shēng jiānbathroom3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dà wèi(name) David
wèi xīngsatellite
jǐng wèito stand guard over
shǒu wèito guard
bǎo wèito defend
zì wèito defend oneself
fáng wèito defend
hù wèito guard
hàn wèito defend
hòu wèirear guard
mén wèiguard at gate
wèi bīngguard
wèi duìguard (i.e. group of soldiers)
wèi shēng zhǐtoilet paper
qián wèiadvanced guard
100
Total compounds
43
As first character
33
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 43 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 24 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.

hàn
0.61614,919 co-occurrences
0.56011 co-occurrences
shì
0.52569,990 co-occurrences
kēng
0.51423,064 co-occurrences
xīng
0.509152,365 co-occurrences
yǔn
0.4887,014 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.48528,374 co-occurrences
duì
0.47057,786 co-occurrences
0.45726,016 co-occurrences
jūn
0.45572,492 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

gōnggòng wèishēngHSK 3+

public health

noun
huán jìng wèi shēngHSK 3+

environmental sanitation; abbr. to 環衛|环卫[huan2 wei4]

phrase
jīngwèitiánhǎiHSK 4+

dogged determination

phrase
Shìwèi ZǔzhīHSK 5+

short for 世界衛生組織/世界卫生组织 (Shìjiè Wèishēng Zǔzhī)

tōngxùn wèixīngHSK 6+

communications satellite

noun
Wèi Mǎn CháoxiǎnHSK 5+

Wiman Joseon

wèi xīng tú xiàngHSK 3+

satellite photo

phrase

Showing 7 of 8 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

wèi zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The character "卫" has a very distinctive way of being written, which left a deep impression on me.

99 健康网Feb 2026

...便后甩一甩是社交礼仪吗?避免滴漏体现个人生吗

. . . biàn hòu shuǎi yī shuǎi shì shè jiāo lǐ yí ma ? bì miǎn dī lòu tǐ xiàn gè rén wèi shēng ma

... Is it social etiquette to shake off the poop? Avoiding dripping reflects personal hygiene

Vietnam+Feb 2026

016“光忠”号导弹护舰启程前往澳大利亚参加2026年卡卡杜多...

0 1 6 guāng zhōng hào dǎo dàn hù wèi jiàn qǐ chéng qián wǎng ào dà lì yà cān jiā 2 0 2 6 nián kǎ kǎ dù duō . . .

016 The missile frigate "Guangzhong" departed for Australia to participate in the 2026 Kakadudo...

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...米兰冬奥会)综合消息:谷爱凌U型场地技巧冕 美国摘赛会最后一金

. . . mǐ lán dōng ào huì ) zèng gě xiāo xī : gǔ ài líng U xíng chǎng dì jì qiǎo wèi 冕 měi guó zhāi sài huì zuì hòu yī jīn

... Milan Winter Olympics) Comprehensive news: Gu Ailing defended her U-shaped field skills and won the last gold medal of the United States

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

主权星商机崛起 华通搭上热潮成大赢家

zhǔ quán wèi xīng shāng jī jué qǐ huá tōng dā shàng rè cháo chéng dà yíng jiā

The rise of sovereign satellite business opportunities Huatong has become a big winner on the boom

StheadlineFeb 2026

2026米兰冬奥|谷爱凌夺个人首金强势冕 国家队包揽U型场地技巧金银牌

2 0 2 6 mǐ lán dōng ào gǔ ài líng duó gè rén shǒu jīn qiáng shì wèi 冕 guó jiā duì bāo lǎn U xíng chǎng dì jì qiǎo jīn yín pái

2026 Milan Winter Olympics|Gu Ailing won her first gold medal and defended her title strongly, and the national team won the gold and silver medals in U-shaped field skills

Tatoeba

你家好脏啊!你多久没打扫生?

Nǐ jiā hǎo zāng ā! nǐ duōjiǔ méi dǎsǎo wèishēng?

Your home is such a mess! When was the last time you cleaned it?

Tatoeba

城市由一支大军守

Chéngshì yóu yī zhī dàjūn shǒuwèi.

The town was defended by a large army.

Tatoeba

母亲让我打扫生间。

Mǔqīn ràng wǒ dǎsǎo wèishēngjiān.

Mother made me clean the bathroom.

Tatoeba

玛丽,这是乔的兄弟大

Mǎlì, zhè shì Qiáo de xiōngdì Dàwèi.

Mary, this is Joe's brother David.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the seal radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced wèi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 卫 (wèi) mean in Chinese?
卫 (wèi) primarily means "vassal state during the zhou dynasty (1066–221 bc), located in present-day henan and hebei provinces." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #669 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 卫 have?
卫 is written with 3 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 卫?
The radical associated with 卫 is 卩 (seal). This radical appears in many characters related to seal.
What are the components of 卫?
卫 is composed of: 乛 (structural), 一 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱乛一 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 卫?
Common words with 卫 include: 大卫 (dà wèi, "(name) David"); 卫星 (wèi xīng, "satellite"); 警卫 (jǐng wèi, "to stand guard over"); 守卫 (shǒu wèi, "to guard"); 卫生 (wèi shēng, "hygienic"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 卫 (wèi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wèi: 危 (danger), 微 (ancient Chinese state near present-day Chongqing), 围 (to encircle), 维 (to maintain), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 卫 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 卫 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.