伍 (wǔ): squad of five soldiers, to associate with, five (banker's anti-fraud numeral)

伍 (wǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “squad of five soldiers.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (structural) and 五 (structural). It ranks #1463 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 伍 five 五 people 亻; 五 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 亻 (person) appears in many related characters such as 人 (rén, person), 什 (shén, what), 今 (jīn, now).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. squad of five soldiers
  2. to associate with
  3. five (banker's anti-fraud numeral)

Etymology & Origin

伍

ideographicFive 五 people 亻; 五 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰亻五 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 伍

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
队伍nounduì wǔranks5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
入伍verbrù wǔto enter the army
退伍verbtuì wǔto be discharged from military service
落伍verbluò wǔto fall behind the ranks
退伍军人nountuì wǔ jūn rénveteran
为伍verbwéi wǔto associate with
泰格·伍兹tài gé · wǔ zīEldrick "Tiger" Woods (1975-), American golfer
伍德豪斯wǔ dé háo sīWoodhouse or Wodehouse (name)
清理队伍qīng lǐ duì wǔto purge the ranks
入伍生rù wǔ shēngnewly enlisted officer student
退伍军人节tuì wǔ jūn rén jiéVeterans' Day
伍家岗区wǔ jiā gǎng qūWujiagang, a district of Yichang City 宜昌市, Hubei
布伍bù wǔto deploy troops
伍斯特酱nounwǔ sī tè jiàngWorcestershire sauce
配伍verbpèi wǔto blend two or more medicines
伍家岗proper-nounwǔ jiā gǎngsee 伍家崗區|伍家岗区
21
Total compounds
33
As first character
38
As last character
29
As middle character

伍 appears in 21 compound words: 33 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 29 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 伍 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

队duì
0.55444,008 co-occurrences
德dé
0.47527,310 co-occurrences
退tuì
0.46112,756 co-occurrences
支zhī
0.4089,276 co-occurrences
拾shí
0.405732 co-occurrences
入rù
0.37913,408 co-occurrences
兹zī
0.351965 co-occurrences
沃wò
0.3301,170 co-occurrences
赛sài
0.3263,932 co-occurrences
召zhào
0.305968 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位老伍虽然年过八旬,但身体依然硬朗。

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

Though over eighty years old, Old Wu remains in robust health.

ZaobaoMar 2026

...冲突为经济带来压力 政府将继续支持劳动队伍

. . . chōng tū wéi jīng jì dài lái yā lì zhèng fǔ jiāng jì xù zhī chí láo dòng duì wǔ

...The conflict is putting pressure on the economy; the government will continue to support the workforce

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

大谷翔平代言赚破亿美元!超车老虎伍兹登顶 打球年薪竟只是零头

dà gǔ xiáng píng dài yán zhuàn pò yì měi yuán ! chāo chē lǎo hǔ wǔ zī dēng dǐng dǎ qiú nián xīn jìng zhī shì líng tóu

Shohei Ohtani Earns Over $100 Million in Endorsement Deals! He Overtakes Tiger Woods to Take the Top Spot—Yet His Baseball Salary Is Just a Fraction of That

三立新聞網Feb 2026

研究蚊子太有趣!博士替代役男退伍不想走

yán jiū wén zǐ tài yǒu qù ! bó shì tì dài yì nán tuì wǔ bù xiǎng zǒu

Studying mosquitoes is so much fun! The doctor resigned from the army and did not want to leave

中時新聞網Feb 2026

...IWAN大游行3/7台湾灯会登场 千人队伍热闹参演

. . . I W A N dà yóu háng 3 7 tái wān dēng huì dēng chǎng qiān rén duì wǔ rè nào cān yǎn

... The IWAN Parade 3/7 Taiwan Lantern Festival debuted, and thousands of people participated in the performance

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

【人生急转弯】林比比鸟/教官退伍后,他靠攀树翻转人生

rén shēng jí zhuǎn wān lín bǐ bǐ niǎo jiào guān tuì wǔ hòu , tā kào pān shù fān zhuǎn rén shēng

【A sharp turn in life】After Lin Bibi Bird/Instructor was discharged from the army, he turned his life around by climbing trees

Tatoeba

刘备和诸葛亮是一支无法战胜的队伍。

Liú Bèi hé Zhūgě Liàng shì yī zhī wúfǎ zhànshèng de duìwǔ.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang are an unbeatable team.

Tatoeba

十支队伍竞逐奖项。

Shí zhīduì wǔ jìngzhú jiǎngxiàng.

Ten teams competed for the prize.

Tatoeba

琳达伍德站在门口。

Lín dá wǔ dé zhàn zài ménkǒu.

Linda Wood was standing at the door.

Tatoeba

伍德太太是个非常棒的厨师。

Wǔ dé tàitai shì gè fēicháng bàng de chúshī.

Mrs. Wood was a very good cook.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced wǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 伍 (wǔ) mean in Chinese?
伍 (wǔ) primarily means "squad of five soldiers." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1463 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 伍 have?
伍 is written with 6 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 伍?
The radical associated with 伍 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 伍?
伍 is composed of: 亻 (structural), 五 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻五 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 伍?
Common words with 伍 include: 队伍 (duì wǔ, "ranks"); 入伍 (rù wǔ, "to enter the army"); 退伍 (tuì wǔ, "to be discharged from military service"); 落伍 (luò wǔ, "to fall behind the ranks"); 退伍军人 (tuì wǔ jūn rén, "veteran"). There are over 21 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 伍 (wǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wǔ: 物 ((bound form) thing), 务 (affair), 五 (five), 武 (martial), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 伍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 伍 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 伍 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.