(yóu): post (office), mail

(yóu) is a Chinese character meaning “post (office).” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1640 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, place. Its radical form (mound) appears in many related characters such as (, (specifier) that), (dōu, all), (yuàn, courtyard).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. post (office)
  2. mail

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplace

Decomposition: ⿰由阝 (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
nounyóu jiànmail3
nounyóu xiāngmailbox3
nounyóu júpost office5
nounyóu piào(postage) stamp5
verbyóu jìto mail5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yóu chāipostman
yóu dì yuánmailman
yóu bàoPost (in the name of a newspaper)
yóu chuōpostmark
yóu zhèngpostal service
yóu gòuto purchase by mail
yóu tǒngmailbox
yóu lúnocean liner
yóu biānpostal code
yóu bāopostal parcel
yóu dìto mail
yóu chēmail van
jí yóustamp collecting
yóu zhèng biān mǎpostal code
yóu chuánmailboat
66
Total compounds
59
As first character
11
As last character
30
As middle character

appears in 66 compound words: 59 as the first character, 11 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.848214,932 co-occurrences
biān
0.787235,368 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.624249,248 co-occurrences
tūn
0.4623,972 co-occurrences
chuō
0.457822 co-occurrences
0.4543,978 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.45227,451 co-occurrences
piào
0.44119,262 co-occurrences
diàn
0.43824,000 co-occurrences
0.4283,865 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

diànzǐ yóujiànHSK 3+

e-mail

noun
diànzǐ yóuxiāngHSK 3+

electronic mailbox; e-mailbox; inbox

noun
jì niàn yóu piàoHSK 5+

commemorative postage stamp

phrase
yóudì qūhàoHSK 4+

postal code; zip code

noun
yóuzhèng xìnxiāngHSK 5+

post office box

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè yóu zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character for "mail" helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

Hk01.comMar 2026

诺如病毒|今抵港轮威士特丹号76人上吐下泻 首名病人日本...

nuò rú bìng dú jīn dǐ gǎng yóu lún wēi shì tè dān hào 7 6 rén shàng tǔ xià xiè shǒu míng bìng rén rì běn . . .

Norovirus|76 people on the cruise ship Westerdam arrived in Hong Kong today vomiting and diarrhea, the first patient Japan...

Am730Mar 2026

启德访港轮爆发诺如病毒感染 船上76人两周内陆续...

qǐ dé fǎng gǎng yóu lún bào fā nuò rú bìng dú gǎn rǎn chuán shàng 7 6 rén liǎng zhōu nèi lù xù . . .

Kai Tak cruise ship visiting Hong Kong outbreak of norovirus infection 76 people on board within two weeks...

English News - RthkMar 2026

短暂停港轮“威士特丹号”疑爆诺如病毒个案

duǎn zàn tíng gǎng yóu lún wēi shì tè dān hào yí bào nuò rú bìng dú gè àn

The cruise ship "Westerdam" was temporarily suspended for a suspected case of norovirus

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

中国政储蓄银行河南省分行原行长金春花接受审查...

zhōng guó yóu zhèng chǔ xù yín háng hé nán shěng fēn háng yuán háng cháng jīn chūn huā jiē shòu shěn chá . . .

Jin Chunhua, former president of the Henan Branch of the Postal Savings Bank of China, was examined...

WorldjournalFeb 2026

搭完轮有“离船症候群”?30-60岁女性最常...

dā wán yóu lún yǒu lí chuán zhèng hòu qún ? 3 0 6 0 suì nǚ xìng zuì cháng . . .

After a cruise, do you have "disembarkation syndrome"? Women aged 30-60 are the most common...

Tatoeba

这里附近有没有政局?

Zhèlǐ fùjìn yǒuméiyǒu yóuzhèngjú?

Is there a post office around here?

Tatoeba

距离村内的政局不到一公里。

Jùlí cūn nèi de yóuzhèngjú bù dào yī gōnglǐ.

It was less than one kilometer to the village post office.

Tatoeba

把这张票贴在明信片上,然后投到箱里。

Bǎ zhè zhāng yóupiào tiē zài míngxìnpiàn shàng, ránhòu tóu dào yóuxiāng lǐ.

Put this stamp on the postcard and drop it in the mailbox.

Tatoeba

她唯一的兴趣是集

Tā wéiyī de xìngqù shì jíyóu.

Her only hobby is collecting stamps.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yóu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 邮 (yóu) mean in Chinese?
邮 (yóu) primarily means "post (office)." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1640 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 邮 and 袖?
邮 (yóu) and 袖 (xiù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 阝 vs 衤 (same 由 component).
How many strokes does 邮 have?
邮 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 邮?
The radical associated with 邮 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 邮?
邮 is composed of: 由 (phonetic), 阝 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰由阝 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 邮?
Common words with 邮 include: 邮件 (yóu jiàn, "mail"); 邮箱 (yóu xiāng, "mailbox"); 邮局 (yóu jú, "post office"); 邮票 (yóu piào, "(postage) stamp"); 邮差 (yóu chāi, "postman"). There are over 66 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 邮 (yóu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yóu: 油 (oil), 优 (excellent), 幽 (remote), 由 (to follow), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 邮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 邮 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.