羽 (yǔ): feather, 5th note in pentatonic scale

羽 (yǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “feather.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 习 (structural) and 习 (structural). It ranks #1846 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 羽 two feathers or wings. Its radical form 羽 (feather) appears in many related characters such as 翻 (fān, to turn over), 耀 (yào, brilliant), 翁 (wēng, elderly man).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. feather
  2. 5th note in pentatonic scale

Etymology & Origin

羽

pictographicTwo feathers or wings

Decomposition: ⿰习习 (layout: left-right)

Components:习structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 羽

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
羽毛球nounyǔ máo qiúbadminton3
羽绒服nounyǔ róng fúdown jacket6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
羽毛nounyǔ máofeather
羽翼nounyǔ yìwing
羽田proper-nounyǔ tiánHaneda (one of the two main airports serving Tokyo)
羽绒nounyǔ róngdown (soft feathers)
铩羽而归phraseshā yǔ ér guī(idiom) to return in low spirits following a defeat or failure to achieve one's ambitions
党羽noundǎng yǔhenchmen
羽化verbyǔ huàlevitation (of Daoist immortal)
项羽xiàng yǔXiang Yu the Conqueror (232-202 BC), warlord defeated by first Han emperor
国际羽毛球联合会guó jì yǔ máo qiú lián hé huìInternational Badminton Federation
放射性烟羽fàng shè xìng yān yǔradiation plume
羽毛球场nounyǔ máo qiú chǎngbadminton court
羽状复叶yǔ zhuàng fù yèbipinnate leaf (in phyllotaxy)
关羽guān yǔGuan Yu (-219), general of Shu and blood-brother of Liu Bei in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, fearsome fighter famous...
威凤一羽wēi fèng yī yǔlit. one phoenix feather
爱惜羽毛phraseài xī yǔ máo(idiom) to cherish one's reputation
47
Total compounds
53
As first character
30
As last character
17
As middle character

羽 appears in 47 compound words: 53 as the first character, 30 as the last, and 17 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 羽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

毛máo
0.66038,964 co-occurrences
甘gān
0.53711 co-occurrences
球qiú
0.53135,088 co-occurrences
翼yì
0.4552,724 co-occurrences
绒róng
0.450492 co-occurrences
赤chì
0.4172,348 co-occurrences
柴chái
0.4021,374 co-occurrences
衣yī
0.3932,359 co-occurrences
尾wěi
0.3933,228 co-occurrences
田tián
0.3896,144 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

爱惜羽毛àixīyǔmáoHSK 4+

to cherish one's reputation

phrase
威凤一羽wēi fèng yī yǔHSK 7+

lit. one phoenix feather; fig. a glimpse that reveals the whole

phrase
羽状复叶yǔ zhuàng fù yèHSK 5+

bipinnate leaf (in phyllotaxy)

phrase
铩羽而归shāyǔ'érguīHSK 6+

to return in low spirits following a defeat or failure to achieve one's ambitions

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们羽字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men yǔ zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "羽."

三立新聞網Mar 2026

恭喜!杨筑云林芷均闯奥尔良羽赛冠军战

gōng xǐ ! yáng zhù yún lín 芷 jūn chuǎng ào ěr liáng yǔ sài guàn jūn zhàn

Congratulations! Yang Zhu and Lin Zhijun Advance to the Final of the Orleans Badminton Tournament

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

奥尔良羽赛/不敌泰国甜心 头号种子邱品蒨首轮落马

ào ěr liáng yǔ sài bù dí tài guó tián xīn tóu hào zhǒng zǐ 邱 pǐn 蒨 shǒu lún luò mǎ

Orléans Badminton Tournament: Top Seed Chiu Pin-chien Upset in First Round by Thai Sweetheart

Am730Mar 2026

Ray Online|颜汶羽选举落败转跑道 加入港专学院担任助理教授

R a y O n l i n e yán 汶 yǔ xuǎn jǔ luò bài zhuǎn pǎo dào jiā rù gǎng zhuān xué yuàn dān rèn zhù lǐ jiào shòu

Ray Online|Yan Wenyu lost the election and changed the track to join HKCT as an assistant professor

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

德国羽赛/林俊易轰垮印度前球王 携戚又仁闯男单...

dé guó yǔ sài lín jùn yì hōng kuǎ yìn dù qián qiú wáng xié qī yòu rén chuǎng nán dān . . .

German Badminton Tournament/Lin Junyi crushed India's former ball king and broke into the men's singles with Qi Youren...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

德国羽赛/麟榤配轻取对手晋男双16强 李哲辉与...

dé guó yǔ sài lín 榤 pèi qīng qǔ duì shǒu jìn nán shuāng 1 6 qiáng lǐ zhé huī yǔ . . .

German Badminton Tournament/Lin Yu easily defeated his opponent to advance to the men's doubles round of 16 Li Zhehui and...

Tatoeba

他尝了尝羽衣甘蓝。

Tā cháng le cháng yǔyīgānlán.

He tasted the kale.

Tatoeba

玛丽做了羽衣甘蓝藜麦沙拉。

Mǎlì zuò le yǔyīgānlán límài shālā.

Mary made a kale and quinoa salad.

Tatoeba

「你今天想吃什么?」「我又想吃羽衣甘蓝了。」

「 nǐ jīntiān xiǎng chī shénme?」「 wǒ yòu xiǎng chī yǔyīgānlán le.」

"What do you want to eat today?" "I fancy kale again."

Tatoeba

鸟儿身上铺满了白色的羽毛。

Niǎor shēnshang pū mǎn le báisè de yǔmáo.

The bird is covered with white feathers.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 羽 (yǔ) mean in Chinese?
羽 (yǔ) primarily means "feather." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1846 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 羽 have?
羽 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 羽?
The radical associated with 羽 is 羽 (feather). This radical appears in many characters related to feather.
What are the components of 羽?
羽 is composed of: 习 (structural), 习 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰习习 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 羽?
Common words with 羽 include: 羽毛 (yǔ máo, "feather"); 羽翼 (yǔ yì, "wing"); 羽毛球 (yǔ máo qiú, "badminton"); 羽田 (yǔ tián, "Haneda (one of the two main airports serving Tokyo)"); 羽绒 (yǔ róng, "down (soft feathers)"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 羽 (yǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yǔ: 于 ((of time or place) in), 与 (and), 语 (language), 预 (to advance), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 羽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 羽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 羽 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.