(yōu): to worry, to concern oneself with, worried

(yōu) is a Chinese character meaning “to worry.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1452 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, heart. Its radical form (heart) appears in many related characters such as (máng, busy), (kuài, fast, happy), (zěn, how).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to worry
  2. to concern oneself with
  3. worried

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿰忄尤 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
verbdān yōuto worry6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yōu yùsullen
yōu shāngdistressed
yōu lǜto worry
wú yōu wú lǜ(idiom) carefree
yōu chóuto be worried
qǐ rén yōu tiānlit. like the man of 杞[Qi3] who feared the sky would fall (idiom)
gāo zhěn wú yōuto sleep peacefully (idiom)
yōu xīn chōng chōngdeeply worried and sick at heart (idiom)
yōu xīnconcerned
hòu gù zhī yōufears of trouble in the rear (idiom)
xǐ yōu cān bànto have mixed feelings (about sth)
fán yōuto worry
pái yōu jiě nànto resolve a difficult situation and leave worries behind (idiom)
fēn yōuto share tribulations
kān yōuworrying
45
Total compounds
31
As first character
40
As last character
29
As middle character

appears in 45 compound words: 31 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 29 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.

dān
0.62721,297 co-occurrences
0.5975,672 co-occurrences
0.5964,245 co-occurrences
dīng
0.5279,768 co-occurrences
chóu
0.507862 co-occurrences
fèn
0.487822 co-occurrences
0.477714 co-occurrences
guī
0.4552,904 co-occurrences
kān
0.431798 co-occurrences
huàn
0.4201,776 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

bǎo jīng yōu huànHSK 6+

having experienced much suffering

phrase
gāozhěnwúyōuHSK 6+

to rest easy; to relax and not worry

phrase
hòugùzhīyōuHSK 6+

trouble back at home; family worries

phrase
kàng yōu yù yàoHSK 7+

antidepressant

phrase
nèiyōuwàihuànHSK 6+

internal and external troubles; internal upheaval and external invasions

phrase
pái yōu jiě nànHSK 6+

to resolve a difficult situation and leave worries behind (idiom)

phrase
wúyōuwúlǜHSK 6+

carefree and without worries

phrase
xǐyōucānbànHSK 6+

to have a mixture of happy and sad feelings

phrase
yīn yōu qǐ shèngHSK 7+

deep suffering can lead to enlightenment (idiom); storms make oaks take deeper root

phrase
qǐ guó yōu tiānHSK 6+

see 杞人憂天|杞人忧天[Qi3 ren2 you1 tian1]

phrase
qǐrényōutiānHSK 6+

to have groundless fears

phrase
qǐ rén zhī yōuHSK 6+

lit. the fear held by a man of 杞[Qi3] that the sky would fall (idiom); fig. groundless fears

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

虽然失败了,但他不气馁,继续努力。

suī rán shī bài le , dàn tā yōu bù qì něi , jì xù nǔ lì .

Though he failed, he did not lose heart but continued to strive.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...市早苗上周与日央行行长会面时对加息表示担

. . . shì zǎo miáo shàng zhōu yǔ rì yāng háng háng cháng huì miàn shí duì jiā xī biǎo shì dān yōu

... Sanae expressed concern about interest rate hikes during a meeting with the governor of the Bank of Japan last week

RfiFeb 2026

香港铁路引入中国标淮 可望减成本 惟评论质素及外国参与降

xiāng gǎng tiě lù yǐn rù zhōng guó biāo huái kě wàng jiǎn chéng běn 惟 píng lùn yōu zhì sù jí wài guó cān yǔ jiàng

The introduction of China's standard Huai River by Hong Kong Railway is expected to reduce costs, but commentators are worried about the quality and foreign participation

InvestingFeb 2026

Stifel因AI安全担下调JFrog目标价

S t i f e l yīn A I ān quán dān yōu xià diào J F r o g mù biāo jià

Stifel lowered JFrog's target price due to AI security concerns

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...部陷停摆...2快速通关计画喊卡 航空业:旅客沦政治足球

. . . bù xiàn tíng bǎi . . . 2 kuài sù tōng guān jì huà hǎn kǎ háng kōng yè yōu : lǚ kè 沦 zhèng zhì zú qiú

... The ministry is in a standoff... 2 fast customs clearance plan shouts card aviation industry worries: passengers fall into political football

Tatoeba

你为什么为我担

Nǐ wèishénme wèi wǒ dānyōu?

Why are you worried about me?

Tatoeba

只有少数的人是无无虑的。

Zhǐ yǒu shǎoshù de rén shì wúyōuwúlǜ de.

Few people are free from cares.

Tatoeba

他在乡村里过着无无虑的生活。

Tā zài xiāngcūn lǐ guò zhe wúyōuwúlǜ de shēnghuó.

He is leading an easy life in the country.

Tatoeba

我每个星期一都觉得很郁。

Wǒ měi gè Xīngqīyī dōu juéde hěn yōuyù.

I always feel blue on Mondays.

Tatoeba

我们为她的安全担

Wǒmen wèi tā de ānquán dānyōu.

We are anxious about her safety.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yōu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 忧 (yōu) mean in Chinese?
忧 (yōu) primarily means "to worry." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1452 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 忧 and 扰?
忧 (yōu) and 扰 (rǎo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 忄 vs 扌 (same 尤 component).
How many strokes does 忧 have?
忧 is written with 7 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 忧?
The radical associated with 忧 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 忧?
忧 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), 尤 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄尤 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 忧?
Common words with 忧 include: 忧郁 (yōu yù, "sullen"); 担忧 (dān yōu, "to worry"); 忧伤 (yōu shāng, "distressed"); 忧虑 (yōu lǜ, "to worry"); 无忧无虑 (wú yōu wú lǜ, "(idiom) carefree"). There are over 45 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 忧 (yōu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yōu: 优 (excellent), 由 (to follow), 邮 (post (office)), 油 (oil), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 忧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 忧 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.