(yòu): young

(yòu) is a Chinese character meaning “young.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1567 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, one with little 幺 strength 力; 幺 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (tiny) appears in many related characters such as (xiāng, country or countryside), (yōu, remote), (huàn, fantasy).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. young

Etymology & Origin

ideographicOne with little 幺 strength 力; 幺 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰幺力 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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
nounyòu ér yuánkindergarten5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yòu zhìyoung
nián yòuyoung
yòu tóngyoung child
yòu chóng(entomology) larva
yòu xiǎoyoung
yòu miáoyoung sprout
yòu éryoung child
yòu niánchildhood
yòu zhì yuánkindergarten (Tw)
yòu nǚyoung girl
yòu shíchildhood
nán nǚ lǎo yòumen, women, young and old
yòu fā lā dǐ héEuphrates River
zì yòusince childhood
yòu tǐthe young (unborn or newborn) of an animal
38
Total compounds
68
As first character
18
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 38 compound words: 68 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 13 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.

zhì
0.78357,178 co-occurrences
0.63710 co-occurrences
ér
0.57543,638 co-occurrences
wěi
0.56310 co-occurrences
yuán
0.52230,747 co-occurrences
chóng
0.5037,362 co-occurrences
kùn
0.48710 co-occurrences
0.4742,322 co-occurrences
yīng
0.4552,298 co-occurrences
gǒu
0.45310 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

fúlǎoxiéyòuHSK 6+

to bring the young and old along; to take everyone along

phrase
nánnǚlǎoyòuHSK 5+

the male and the female, the old and the young: everybody

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě yòu zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "幼" had different meanings in classical Chinese.

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

1岁半童悬挂10楼窗外坠落 路人合力以大衣接住...

1 suì bàn yòu tóng xuán guà 1 0 lóu chuāng wài zhuì luò lù rén gě lì yǐ dà yī jiē zhù . . .

A one-and-a-half-year-old child hung from the window on the 10th floor and fell from the window, and passers-by worked together to catch it with a coat...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

财政预算案|消息:稚园单位资助额不再削减 两项津贴整合并入

cái zhèng yù suàn àn xiāo xī : yòu zhì yuán dān wèi zī zhù é bù zài xiāo jiǎn liǎng xiàng jīn tiē zhěng gě bìng rù

Budget|News: The amount of subsidy for kindergarten units will not be reduced The two subsidies will be integrated and merged

Hk01.comFeb 2026

财政预算案|消息:稚园单位资助不再减 官津校资助每年削2%

cái zhèng yù suàn àn xiāo xī : yòu zhì yuán dān wèi zī zhù bù zài jiǎn guān jīn jiào zī zhù měi nián xiāo 2

Budget|News: Kindergarten subsidy will no longer be reduced, and subsidy for government subsidies will be cut by 2% every year

StheadlineFeb 2026

上水“怪兽仓”两犬被困笼内 一狗断尾惹乌蝇 区议员联络仓...

shàng shuǐ guài shòu cāng liǎng yòu quǎn bèi kùn lóng nèi yī gǒu duàn wěi rě wū yíng qū yì yuán lián lào cāng . . .

Two puppies in the "monster warehouse" in Sheung Shui were trapped in a cage, and a dog cut off its tail to provoke flies District councillor liaison warehouse...

Tatoeba

是你该放弃你稚手段的时候了。

Shì nǐ gāi fàngqì nǐ yòuzhì shǒuduàn de shíhou le.

It is time you left off your childish ways.

Tatoeba

打消这种稚的念头吧。

Dǎxiāo zhèzhǒng yòuzhì de niàntou ba.

Get rid of those kinds of naive ideas.

Tatoeba

母鸟叼来虫子喂鸟。

Mǔ niǎo diāo lái chóngzi wèi yòu niǎo.

The mother bird brought worms for her young ones.

Tatoeba

横街的那端有一个儿园。

Héngjiē de nà duān yǒu yī gè yòu'éryuán.

There is a kindergarten at the other end of the street.

Tatoeba

孤儿们被带到这间育院。

Gū'ér men bèi dài dào zhè jiān yùyòuyuàn.

The orphans were taken to the orphanage.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the tiny radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced yòu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 幼 (yòu) mean in Chinese?
幼 (yòu) primarily means "young." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1567 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 幼 have?
幼 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 幼?
The radical associated with 幼 is 幺 (tiny). This radical appears in many characters related to tiny.
What are the components of 幼?
幼 is composed of: 幺 (structural), 力 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰幺力 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 幼?
Common words with 幼 include: 幼稚 (yòu zhì, "young"); 幼儿园 (yòu ér yuán, "kindergarten"); 年幼 (nián yòu, "young"); 幼童 (yòu tóng, "young child"); 幼虫 (yòu chóng, "(entomology) larva"). There are over 38 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 幼 (yòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yòu: 优 (excellent), 幽 (remote), 由 (to follow), 邮 (post (office)), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 幼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 幼 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.