(yōng): to hold in one's arms, to embrace, to surround, to gather around, to throng, to swarm

(yōng) is a Chinese character meaning “to hold in one's arms.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1058 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to hold in one's arms
  2. to embrace
  3. to surround
  4. to gather around
  5. to throng
  6. to swarm

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌用 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbyōng yǒuto have5
verbyōng bàoto embrace5
verb/adjectiveyōng jǐcrowded6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yōng hùto endorse
fēng yōng ér zhìto arrive in huge numbers
yōng dǔ(of traffic) to become congested
fēng yōngto swarm
yōng dàito give one's allegiance
yōng jǐ bù kānovercrowded
cù yōngto crowd around
yī yōng ér shàngto swarm around
yōng sèto be clogged up
yī yōng ér rùto swarm in (of people etc) (idiom)
yōng bīng zì zhòng(of a warlord etc) to assemble one's personal army, thereby presenting a challenge to the central government
yōng yǒu quánright of ownership
yōng hù zhěsupporter (person)
jiāo tōng yōng jǐtraffic congestion
shuāng yōngmutual support between the military and the people – specifically, support provided by local people and authorities f...
21
Total compounds
62
As first character
14
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 21 compound words: 62 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 24 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.6087,546 co-occurrences
yǒu
0.601379,338 co-occurrences
0.5235,685 co-occurrences
0.48712 co-occurrences
bào
0.4786,808 co-occurrences
shuì
0.4776,576 co-occurrences
tíng
0.46617,514 co-occurrences
fěn
0.46612 co-occurrences
0.44413,974 co-occurrences
0.428816 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

fēngyǒng'érzhìHSK 6+

to flock; to swarm

phrase
yīyōng'érrùHSK 5+

to swarm in

phrase
yīyǒng'érshàngHSK 5+

to rush forward together

phrase
yōngbīngzìzhòngHSK 6+

to control a sizable army and defy orders from higher or central authorities

phrase
yōng jǐ bù kānHSK 7+

overcrowded; jam-packed

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

粉丝们热情地抱着偶像,场面十分感人。

Fěnsīmen rèqíng de yōngbàozhe ǒuxiàng, chǎngmiàn shífēn gǎnrén.

Fans warmly embraced their idol; the scene was very touching.

中時新聞網Feb 2026

不只赢新加坡!是方坐三环网路 力拚超日赶港

bù zhī yíng xīn jiā pō ! shì fāng zuò yōng sān huán wǎng lù lì 拚 chāo rì gǎn gǎng

Don't just win Singapore! It is sitting on the third ring road and striving to catch up with Hong Kong

TvbsFeb 2026

施振荣长期台积电!看好台湾农业世界强“超越电子业”...

shī zhèn róng cháng qī yōng tái jī diàn ! kàn hǎo tái wān nóng yè shì jiè qiáng chāo yuè diàn zǐ yè . . .

Shi Zhenrong has long owned TSMC! Optimistic about Taiwan's agricultural world's strong "surpassing the electronics industry"...

百度新闻Feb 2026

百万粉丝的他,为何归零重启,一头扎进金山...

zuò yōng bǎi mò fěn sī de tā , wéi hé guī líng chóng qǐ , yī tóu zhā jìn jīn shān . . .

He has millions of fans, why zero reboot, head into the gold mountain...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新冬能·场外音|关尹:超越胜负的抱比金牌更可贵

xīn dōng néng chǎng wài yīn guān 尹 chāo yuè shèng fù de yōng bào bǐ jīn pái gēng kě guì

New Dongneng - Off the field | Guan Yin: Embrace beyond victory is more valuable than gold medals

Tatoeba

汤姆尝试抱玛丽。

Tāngmǔ chángshì yōngbào Mǎlì.

Tom tried to hug Mary.

Tatoeba

有得愈多,贪念就愈大。

Rén yōngyǒu de yù duō, tānniàn jiù yù dà.

The more we have, the greater our desire will be.

Tatoeba

晴天,海滩总是很挤。

Qíngtiān, hǎitān zǒngshì hěn yōngjǐ.

On sunny days, the beach is very crowded.

Tatoeba

汤姆有一台钢琴。

Tāngmǔ yōngyǒu yī tái gāngqín.

Tom has a piano.

Tatoeba

大卫尝试抱阿曼达。

Dàwèi chángshì yōngbào āmàndá.

David tried to hug Amanda.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yōng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拥 (yōng) mean in Chinese?
拥 (yōng) primarily means "to hold in one's arms." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1058 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 拥 have?
拥 is written with 8 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 拥?
The radical associated with 拥 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拥?
拥 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 用 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌用 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拥?
Common words with 拥 include: 拥有 (yōng yǒu, "to have"); 拥抱 (yōng bào, "to embrace"); 拥挤 (yōng jǐ, "crowded"); 拥护 (yōng hù, "to endorse"); 蜂拥而至 (fēng yōng ér zhì, "to arrive in huge numbers"). There are over 21 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拥 (yōng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yōng: 庸 (ordinary), 佣 (commission (for middleman)), 永 (forever), 咏 (to sing), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拥 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 拥 and the traditional form is 擁.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.