(): room, universe

() is a Chinese character meaning “room.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1154 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, building. Its radical form (roof) appears in many related characters such as (, guest, customer), (jiā, home, family), (, it).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. room
  2. universe

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticbuilding

Decomposition: ⿱宀于 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yǔ zhòuuniverse
yǔ háng yuánastronaut
yǔ zhòu fēi chuánspaceship
yǔ háng júspace agency
yǔ hángspace flight
miào yǔtemple
yǔ háng fúspacesuit
dà yǔDaewoo (Korean conglomerate)
wú zhèn yǔFrancis Ng Chun-Yu (1961-), Hong Kong actor
线yǔ zhòu shè xiàncosmic ray
lǐ yǔ chūnLi Yuchun aka Chris Lee (1984-), Chinese pop singer
jìng yǔsee 靖宇縣|靖宇县[Jing4 yu3 Xian4]
殿diàn yǔ(literary) halls (of a palace or a temple)
huán yǔthe whole earth
lóu yǔbuilding
39
Total compounds
36
As first character
41
As last character
23
As middle character

appears in 39 compound words: 36 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 23 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.

zhòu
0.869238,910 co-occurrences
háng
0.48844,994 co-occurrences
miào
0.46510,738 co-occurrences
0.44915 co-occurrences
shù
0.42311 co-occurrences
zhèn
0.4118,706 co-occurrences
yáng
0.3987,932 co-occurrences
zuǒ
0.39810,902 co-occurrences
xiáng
0.3974,470 co-occurrences
péng
0.3971,662 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

yǔzhòu fēichuánHSK 7+

spacecraft; spaceship

noun
线yǔzhòu shèxiànHSK 7+

cosmic ray

noun
yǔzhòu sùdùHSK 7+

cosmic velocity

noun
zǐ zhī méi yǔHSK 7+

your appearance (honorific)

phrase
qìyǔxuān'ángHSK 7+

one has a dignified bearing

phrase
qì yǔ xuān ángHSK 7+

variant of 氣宇軒昂|气宇轩昂[qi4 yu3 xuan1 ang2]

phrase
qiónglóuyùyǔHSK 7+

the palace of the Moon; splendid building

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

yǔ zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "宇" is used less frequently in daily life.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

默茨访华|率团参观机械人企业 树科技王兴兴:共推产业发展

mò 茨 fǎng huá lǜ tuán cān guàn jī xiè rén qǐ yè yǔ shù kē jì wáng xīng xīng : gòng tuī chǎn yè fā zhǎn

Mertz visited China|Led a delegation to visit the robot company Wang Xingxing of Yushu Technology: jointly promote industrial development

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

默茨转抵杭州参访树科技 王兴兴:深感荣幸

mò 茨 zhuǎn dǐ háng zhōu cān fǎng yǔ shù kē jì wáng xīng xīng : shēn gǎn róng xìng

Mertz arrived in Hangzhou to visit Yushu Technology Wang Xingxing: I am deeply honored

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

树发布四足机器人Unitree As2

yǔ shù fā bù sì zú jī qì rén U n i t r e e A s 2

Unitree released the quadruped robot Unitree As2

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

默茨明起访华两日 期间将参观树科技、西门子、平治等企业

mò 茨 míng qǐ fǎng huá liǎng rì qī jiān jiāng cān guàn yǔ shù kē jì , xī mén zǐ , píng zhì děng qǐ yè

During Mertzming's two-day visit to China, he will visit Unitree Technology, Siemens, Mercedes-Benz and other companies

It之家Feb 2026

小米张:REDMI Turbo 5 Max 手...

xiǎo mǐ zhāng yǔ : R E D M I T u r b o 5 M a x shǒu . . .

Xiaomi Zhang Yu: REDMI Turbo 5 Max Mobile...

Tatoeba

宙是怎样形成的?

Yǔzhòu shì zěnyàng xíngchéng de?

How was the universe formed?

Tatoeba

您知道这座庙供奉的是哪个神吗?

Nín zhīdào zhè zuò miàoyǔ gòngfèng de shì nǎge shén ma?

Do you know which deity this temple is dedicated to?

Tatoeba

宙里有多少个星系呀?

Yǔzhòu lǐ yǒu duōshao gè xīngxì ya?

How many galaxies are there in the universe?

Tatoeba

宙毫无疑问是无限的。

Yǔzhòu háowúyíwèn shì wúxiàn de.

There's no doubt: the universe is infinite.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 宇 (yǔ) mean in Chinese?
宇 (yǔ) primarily means "room." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1154 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 宇 and 吁?
宇 (yǔ) and 吁 (xū) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 宀 vs 口 (same 于 component).
How many strokes does 宇 have?
宇 is written with 6 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 宇?
The radical associated with 宇 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 宇?
宇 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 于 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀于 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 宇?
Common words with 宇 include: 宇宙 (yǔ zhòu, "universe"); 宇航员 (yǔ háng yuán, "astronaut"); 宇宙飞船 (yǔ zhòu fēi chuán, "spaceship"); 宇航局 (yǔ háng jú, "space agency"); 宇航 (yǔ háng, "space flight"). There are over 39 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 宇 (yǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yǔ: 于 ((of time or place) in), 余 ((literary) I), 鱼 (fish), 与 (and), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 宇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 宇 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.