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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ordinary
  2. to use

Etymology & Origin

庸

pictophoneticThis character is a compound form.

Decomposition: ⿸广⿱彐用 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

WordPinyinMeaning
平庸adjectivepíng yōngmediocre
庸俗adjectiveyōng súvulgar
庸医nounyōng yīquack
附庸nounfù yōngvassal
庸人nounyōng rénmediocre person
无庸wú yōngvariant of 毋庸
中庸proper-nounzhōng yōnggolden mean (Confucianism)
庸才nounyōng cáimediocrity
毋庸verbwú yōngno need for
庸庸碌碌adjectiveyōng yōng lù lùordinary
昏庸adjectivehūn yōngmuddleheaded
庸碌adjectiveyōng lùmediocre
中庸之道nounzhōng yōng zhī dàodoctrine of the mean
平庸之恶píng yōng zhī è(philosophy) banal evil
庸人自扰phraseyōng rén zì rǎolit. silly people get their panties in a bunch (idiom)
23
Total compounds
39
As first character
39
As last character
22
As middle character

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.

碌lù
0.529266 co-occurrences
附fù
0.5184,308 co-occurrences
昏hūn
0.488650 co-occurrences
酬chóu
0.450294 co-occurrences
俗sú
0.440850 co-occurrences
疑yí
0.405795 co-occurrences
烛zhú
0.40450 co-occurrences
鄙bǐ
0.39668 co-occurrences
胡hú
0.387648 co-occurrences
冯féng
0.382192 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

附庸风雅fùyōngfēngyǎHSK 7+

to put on an air of pretension despite one's own lack of cultural knowledge

phrase
平庸之辈píng yōng zhī bèiHSK 7+

a nobody; a nonentity

phrase
庸碌无能yōng lù wú néngHSK 7+

mediocre and incompetent

phrase
庸人自扰yōngrénzìrǎoHSK 7+

to ask for trouble for no reason; to get one's panties in a bunch

phrase
庸庸碌碌yōngyōnglùlùHSK 7+

mediocre and unambitious

adjective
中庸之道zhōngyōng zhī dàoHSK 7+

the doctrine of the golden mean

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

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.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

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.

爱范儿Jul 2026

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.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

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.

Master – InsightMar 2026

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...

Tatoeba

毋庸置疑,汤姆毒害了玛丽。

Wúyōngzhìyí, Tāngmǔ dúhài le Mǎlì.

There's no doubt Tom poisoned Mary.

Tatoeba

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.

Tatoeba

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.

Tatoeba

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

Homophones — Characters pronounced yōng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 庸 (yōng) mean in Chinese?
庸 (yōng) primarily means "ordinary." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2102 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 庸 have?
庸 is written with 11 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 庸?
The radical associated with 庸 is 广 (shelter). This radical appears in many characters related to shelter.
What are the components of 庸?
庸 is composed of: 广 (structural), 彐 (structural), 用 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸广⿱彐用 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 庸?
Common words with 庸 include: 平庸 (píng yōng, "mediocre"); 庸俗 (yōng sú, "vulgar"); 庸医 (yōng yī, "quack"); 附庸 (fù yōng, "vassal"); 庸人 (yōng rén, "mediocre person"). There are over 23 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 庸 (yōng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yōng: 拥 (to hold in one's arms), 用 (to use), 永 (forever), 勇 (brave), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 庸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 庸 is written the same way in both 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.

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.