庸 (yōng): ordinary, to use
庸 (yōng) is a Chinese character meaning “ordinary.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 广 (structural), 彐 (structural) and 用 (phonetic). It ranks #2102 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 庸 is a compound character. Its radical form 广 (shelter) appears in many related characters such as 床 (chuáng, bed), 店 (diàn, shop), 广 (guǎng, wide, broad).
Definitions
- ordinary
- to use
Etymology & Origin
pictophoneticThis character is a compound form.
Decomposition: ⿸广⿱彐用 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 庸 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 平庸adjective | píng yōng | mediocre |
| 庸俗adjective | yōng sú | vulgar |
| 庸医noun | yōng yī | quack |
| 附庸noun | fù yōng | vassal |
| 庸人noun | yōng rén | mediocre person |
| 无庸 | wú yōng | variant of 毋庸 |
| 中庸proper-noun | zhōng yōng | golden mean (Confucianism) |
| 庸才noun | yōng cái | mediocrity |
| 毋庸verb | wú yōng | no need for |
| 庸庸碌碌adjective | yōng yōng lù lù | ordinary |
| 昏庸adjective | hūn yōng | muddleheaded |
| 庸碌adjective | yōng lù | mediocre |
| 中庸之道noun | zhōng yōng zhī dào | doctrine of the mean |
| 平庸之恶 | píng yōng zhī è | (philosophy) banal evil |
| 庸人自扰phrase | yōng rén zì rǎo | lit. silly people get their panties in a bunch (idiom) |
庸 appears in 23 compound words: 39 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 22 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 庸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (6)
to put on an air of pretension despite one's own lack of cultural knowledge
to put on an air of pretension despite one's own lack of cultural knowledge
Example Sentences
庸字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。
yōng zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .
The character "庸" has a very distinctive way of being written, which left a deep impression on me.
金庸、徐悲鸿、沈从文等也曾在此驻足。
jīn yōng , xú bēi hóng , Shěn cóng wén děng yě céng zài cǐ zhù zú .
Jin Yong, Xu Beihong, Shen Congwen, and others have also stopped here.
毋庸置疑,作为经典名着,《红楼梦》具有极高的价值。
毋 yōng zhì yí , zuò wéi jīng diǎn míng zhe , hóng lóu mèng jù yǒu jí gāo de jià zhí .
There is no doubt that, as a classic literary masterpiece, *Dream of the Red Chamber* holds immense value.
不要做 AI 的附庸,去做它的导演。
bù yāo zuò A I de fù yōng , qù zuò tā de dǎo yǎn .
Don’t be a puppet of AI—be its director.
真正的学术普及,应该是知识通俗化,而不是知识庸俗化。
zhēn zhèng de xué shù pǔ jí , yīng gāi shì zhī shí tōng sú huà , ér bù shì zhī shí yōng sú huà .
True academic outreach should involve making knowledge accessible to the general public, not dumbing it down.
从金庸的“情”到日本的“绊”──襄阳古城墙下的...
cóng jīn yōng de qíng dào rì běn de bàn 襄 yáng gǔ chéng qiáng xià de . . .
From Jin Yong’s “Affection” to Japan’s “Kizuna” — Under the Ancient City Walls of Xiangyang...
毋庸置疑,汤姆毒害了玛丽。
Wúyōngzhìyí, Tāngmǔ dúhài le Mǎlì.
There's no doubt Tom poisoned Mary.
他无庸置疑是个伟大的艺术家。
Tā wúyōng zhìyí shì gè wěidà de yìshùjiā.
It is clear that he is a great artist.
在15世纪,琉球王国是中国帝国的附庸国。
Zài 15 shìjì, Liúqiúwángguó shì Zhōngguó dìguó de fùyōng guó.
During the 15th century, the Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of Imperial China.
这毋庸置疑是我吃过的最糟糕的一顿饭。
Zhè wúyōng zhìyí shì wǒ chī guo de zuì zāogāo de yī dùn fàn.
This is unequivocally the worst meal I have ever had.
Character Family
广 Radical Family — Characters sharing the shelter radical
Frequently Asked Questions
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What characters sound the same as 庸 (yōng)?
Is 庸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 庸 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.