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

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

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

忧

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿰忄尤 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 忧

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
担忧verbdān yōuto worry6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
忧郁adjectiveyōu yùsullen
忧伤adjectiveyōu shāngdistressed
忧虑verbyōu lǜto worry
无忧无虑phrasewú yōu wú lǜ(idiom) carefree
忧愁adjectiveyōu chóuto be worried
杞人忧天phraseqǐ rén yōu tiān(lit.) like the man of 杞 who feared the sky would fall (idiom)
高枕无忧phrasegāo zhěn wú yōuto sleep peacefully (idiom)
忧心忡忡phraseyōu xīn chōng chōngdeeply worried and sick at heart (idiom)
忧心nounyōu xīnconcerned
后顾之忧phrasehòu gù zhī yōufears of trouble in the rear (idiom)
喜忧参半phrasexǐ yōu cān bànto have mixed feelings (about sth)
烦忧fán yōuto worry
排忧解难pái yōu jiě nànto resolve a difficult situation and leave worries behind (idiom)
分忧verbfēn yōuto share tribulations
堪忧adjectivekān yōuworrying
44
Total compounds
32
As first character
39
As last character
30
As middle character

忧 appears in 44 compound words: 32 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 30 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 忧 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

担dān
0.6097,150 co-occurrences
郁yù
0.5411,421 co-occurrences
淮huái
0.54011 co-occurrences
虑lǜ
0.5401,910 co-occurrences
丁dīng
0.5193,256 co-occurrences
愤fèn
0.480274 co-occurrences
愁chóu
0.470290 co-occurrences
惧jù
0.470238 co-occurrences
惟wéi
0.46511 co-occurrences
归guī
0.448968 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

饱经忧患bǎo jīng yōu huànHSK 6+

having experienced much suffering

phrase
高枕无忧gāozhěnwúyōuHSK 6+

to rest easy; to relax and not worry

phrase
后顾之忧hòugùzhīyōuHSK 6+

trouble back at home; family worries

phrase
抗忧郁药kàng yōu yù yàoHSK 7+

antidepressant

phrase
内忧外患nèiyōuwàihuànHSK 6+

internal and external troubles; internal upheaval and external invasions

phrase
排忧解难pái yōu jiě nànHSK 6+

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

phrase
无忧无虑wúyōuwúlǜHSK 6+

carefree and without worries

phrase
喜忧参半xǐyōucānbànHSK 6+

to have a mixture of happy and sad feelings

phrase
殷忧启圣yīn yōu qǐ shèngHSK 7+

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

phrase
杞国忧天qǐ guó yōu tiānHSK 6+

see 杞人憂天|杞人忧天

phrase
杞人忧天qǐrényōutiānHSK 6+

to have groundless fears

phrase
杞人之忧qǐ rén zhī yōuHSK 6+

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

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing 忧.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

虽然失败了,但他忧不气馁,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忧

. . . 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 惟评论忧质素及外国参与降

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安全担忧下调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 航空业忧: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

你为什么为我担忧?

Nǐ wèishénme wèi wǒ dānyōu?

Why are you worried about me?

Tatoeba

只有少数的人是无忧无虑的。

Zhǐ yǒu shǎoshù de rén shì wúyōuwúlǜ de.

Few people are free from cares.

Tatoeba

他在乡村里过着无忧无虑的生活。

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忧郁。

Wǒ měi gè Xīngqīyī dōu juéde hěn yōuyù.

I always feel blue on Mondays.

Tatoeba

我们为她的安全担忧。

Wǒmen wèi tā de ānquán dānyōu.

We are anxious about her safety.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 忄 (heart) component

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 44 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 忧 (yōu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yōu: 优 (excellent), 有 (to have), 又 ((once) again), 由 (to follow), 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 忧 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.