侮 (wǔ): to insult, to ridicule, to disgrace

侮 (wǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “to insult.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亻 (structural) and 每 (structural). It ranks #2505 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to insult
  2. to ridicule
  3. to disgrace

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
侮辱verbwǔ rǔto insult
欺侮verbqī wǔto bully
侮蔑verbwǔ miècontempt
兄弟阋于墙,外御其侮xiōng dì xì yú qiáng , wài yù qí wǔinternal disunity dissolves at the threat of an invasion from outside (idiom)
外侮nounwài wǔ(literary) foreign aggression
轻侮verbqīng wǔ(literary) to treat with disrespect
侮慢verbwǔ mànto humiliate
侮弄wǔ nòngto mock
戏侮xì wǔto insult
侮骂wǔ màto scold
10
Total compounds
50
As first character
50
As last character
0
As middle character

侮 appears in 10 compound words: 50 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 0 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 侮 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

辱rǔ
0.8668,913 co-occurrences
欺qī
0.514492 co-occurrences
诽fěi
0.50388 co-occurrences
蔑miè
0.494134 co-occurrences
讽fěng
0.43125 co-occurrences
殴ōu
0.42956 co-occurrences
骂mà
0.42554 co-occurrences
谤bàng
0.41934 co-occurrences
嘲cháo
0.38252 co-occurrences
御yù
0.371266 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位老侮虽然年过八旬,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, this old man remains in robust health.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

他们帮他建造房屋,还出手报复侮辱他的官吏。

tā men bāng tā jiàn zào fáng wū , hái chū shǒu bào fù wǔ rǔ tā de guān lì .

They helped him build a house and took action against the officials who had insulted him.

InvestingMar 2026

侮辱消费者是狗的罗技,CEO去年曾放话削减...

wǔ rǔ xiāo fèi zhě shì gǒu de luó jì , C E O qù nián céng fàng huà xiāo jiǎn . . .

Logitech, which insulted consumers by calling them "dogs," had its CEO announce last year that it would cut...

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

...女学生家教网谋职遭讽“来卖的” 她告公然侮辱结局反转

. . . nǚ xué shēng jiā jiào wǎng móu zhí zāo fěng lái mài de tā gào gōng rán wǔ rǔ jié jú fǎn zhuǎn

...Female Student Faces Ridicule as 'Prostitute' While Seeking Tutoring Jobs Online; She Sues for Public Insult, but the Outcome Takes an Unexpected Turn

EttodayFeb 2026

...想月付3万打发”罹癌经纪人又被惹火:这是侮辱

. . . xiǎng yuè fù 3 wàn dǎ fā 罹 ái jīng jì rén yòu bèi rě huǒ : zhè shì wǔ rǔ

... I want to pay 30,000 yuan a month to send "the agent with cancer was angry again: this is an insult

Tatoeba

汤姆没想侮辱谁。

Tāngmǔ méi xiǎng wǔrǔ shéi.

Tom didn't mean to insult anybody.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced wǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 侮 (wǔ) mean in Chinese?
侮 (wǔ) primarily means "to insult." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2505 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 侮 have?
侮 is written with 9 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 侮?
The radical associated with 侮 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 侮?
侮 is composed of: 亻 (structural), 每 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻每 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 侮?
Common words with 侮 include: 侮辱 (wǔ rǔ, "to insult"); 欺侮 (qī wǔ, "to bully"); 侮蔑 (wǔ miè, "contempt"); 兄弟阋于墙,外御其侮 (xiōng dì xì yú qiáng , wài yù qí wǔ, "internal disunity dissolves at the threat of an invasion from outside (idiom)"); 外侮 (wài wǔ, "(literary) foreign aggression"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 侮 (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 侮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 侮 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 侮 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.