业 (yè): line of business, industry, occupation

业 (yè) is a Chinese character meaning “line of business.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 一 (structural). It ranks #130 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. line of business
  2. industry
  3. occupation

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 业

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
职业nounzhí yèoccupation4
毕业verbbì yègraduation4
事业nounshì yèundertaking5
专业noun/adjectivezhuān yèspecialty4
作业nounzuò yèschool assignment3
商业nounshāng yèbusiness5
行业nounháng yètrade5
业余adjectiveyè yúin one's spare time5
失业verbshī yèunemployment5
企业nounqǐ yècompany5
业务nounyè wùbusiness5
工业noungōng yèindustry5
产业nounchǎn yèindustry5
营业verbyíng yèto do business5
毕业生nounbì yè shēnggraduate4
开业verbkāi yèto open a business5
农业nounnóng yèagriculture5
就业verbjiù yèto get a job5
创业verbchuàng yèto begin an undertaking5
物业nounwù yèproperty5
从业verbcóng yèto practice (a trade)6
各行各业phrasegè háng gè yèevery trade5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
学业nounxué yèstudies
业主nounyè zhǔowner
业绩nounyè jìachievement
敬业verbjìng yèdedicated to one's work
执业verbzhí yèto work in a profession (e.g. doctor, lawyer)
企业家nounqǐ yè jiāentrepreneur
重操旧业phrasechóng cāo jiù yè(idiom) to resume one's old trade
商业化shāng yè huàto commercialize
停业verbtíng yèto cease trading (temporarily or permanently)
职业病nounzhí yè bìngoccupational disease
102
Total compounds
19
As first character
72
As last character
10
As middle character

业 appears in 102 compound words: 19 as the first character, 72 as the last, and 10 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 业 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

毕bì
0.677126,993 co-occurrences
职zhí
0.655107,356 co-occurrences
企qǐ
0.645107,965 co-occurrences
商shāng
0.55683,376 co-occurrences
工gōng
0.540133,660 co-occurrences
专zhuān
0.537103,887 co-occurrences
农nóng
0.52966,371 co-occurrences
渔yú
0.5196,696 co-occurrences
涯yá
0.50020,398 co-occurrences
营yíng
0.49630,058 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (29)

毕业典礼bìyè diǎnlǐHSK 4+

graduation ceremony; commencement

noun
毕业证书bìyè zhèngshūHSK 4+

diploma; certificate of graduation

noun
充分就业chōng fèn jiù yèHSK 5+

full employment

phrase
从业人员cóngyè rényuánHSK 3+

employed personnel; employed person

noun
第二职业dì èr zhí yèHSK 4+

second job

phrase
钢铁工业gāng tiě gōng yèHSK 4+

steel industry

phrase
各行各业gèhánggèyèHSK 4+

all walks of life, with special reference to occupation; every trade; all professions; all classes of society

phrase
工业革命Gōngyè GémìngHSK 5+

the Industrial Revolution

工业设计gōngyè shèjìHSK 5+

industrial design

noun
工业园区gōngyè yuánqūHSK 3+

industrial park

noun
公共事业gōnggòng shìyèHSK 3+

public work

noun
公益事业gōngyì shìyèHSK 5+

service to the public; charity

noun

Showing 12 of 29 idioms containing 业.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

业字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

yè zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character for "business" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

商业船舶正从全球各地驶往伊朗港口

shāng yè chuán bó zhèng cóng quán qiú gè dì shǐ wǎng yī lǎng gǎng kǒu

Commercial ships are sailing from all over the world to Iranian ports

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

业界倡上调基本免税额一成 预算案料难大派糖...

yè jiè chàng shàng diào jī běn miǎn shuì é yī chéng yù suàn àn liào nán dà pài táng . . .

The industry advocates raising the basic tax exemption by 10%, and the budget is expected to be difficult to distribute sugar...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

通膨上升、减重药热销 美食品业降价吸引顾客回流

tōng péng shàng shēng , jiǎn chóng yào rè xiāo měi shí pǐn yè jiàng jià xī yǐn gù kè huí liú

Inflation rises, weight loss drugs are hot, and the price reduction of the US food industry attracts customers to return

InvestingFeb 2026

...anca Generali 2025财年业绩:创纪录利润,拟派发2.9欧元股息

. . . a n c a G e n e r a l i 2 0 2 5 cái nián yè jì : chuàng jì lù lì rùn , nǐ pài fā 2 . 9 ōu yuán gǔ xī

... anca Generali fiscal year 2025 results: record profit, proposed dividend of 2.9 euros

Tatoeba

为什么没写作业?快说!

Wèishéme méi xiězuò yè? kuài shuō!

Why didn't you do your homework? Speak up!

Tatoeba

目前的失业率是多少?

Mùqián de shīyèlǜ shì duōshao?

What is the unemployment rate at the moment?

Tatoeba

您是从哪个学校毕业的?

Nín shì cóng nǎge xuéxiào bìyè de?

From what school did you graduate?

Tatoeba

您在英国从事中医行业多长时间了?

Nín zài Yīngguó cóngshì Zhōngyī hángyè duō cháng shíjiān le?

How long have you been practising Chinese medicine in the UK?

Tatoeba

打扰一下,超市现在营业吗?

Dǎrǎo yīxià, chāoshì xiànzài yíngyè ma?

Excuse me. Is the supermarket open?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 业 (yè) mean in Chinese?
业 (yè) primarily means "line of business." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #130 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 业 have?
业 is written with 5 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 业?
The radical associated with 业 is 一 (one). This radical appears in many characters related to one.
What are the components of 业?
业 is composed of: 一 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 业?
Common words with 业 include: 职业 (zhí yè, "occupation"); 毕业 (bì yè, "graduation"); 事业 (shì yè, "undertaking"); 专业 (zhuān yè, "specialty"); 作业 (zuò yè, "school assignment"). There are over 102 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 业 (yè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yè: 也 (also), 夜 (night), 野 (field), 爷 (grandpa), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 业 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 业 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 业 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.