(): to educate, to raise

() is a Chinese character meaning “to educate, to raise.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (moon). It ranks #609 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a pregnant woman with a baby ⺼ in her womb. Its radical form (moon) appears in many related characters such as (yuè, moon, month), (yǒu, to have), (péng, friend).

Native pronunciation
HSK 3Radical: moon8 strokesFrequency #609

Definitions

  1. to educate, to raise

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA pregnant woman with a baby ⺼ in her womb

Decomposition: ⿱⿱亠厶⺼ (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
noun/verbjiào yùto educate4
nountǐ yùsports3
nountǐ yù guǎngym3
verbfā yùto develop6
verbpéi yùto train6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shēng yùto give birth to
yǎng yùto rear
tǐ yù chǎngstadium
yùn yùto be pregnant
shēng ér yù nǚto bear and raise children
tǐ yù yùn dòngsports
gāo děng jiào yùhigher education
jì huà shēng yùfamily planning
jiào yù bùMinistry of Education
fǔ yùto nurture
jié yùto practice birth control
tǐ yù jièsports circles
bǎo yùto look after (children)
jiào yù xuépedagogy
bǔ yùto feed
100
Total compounds
17
As first character
46
As last character
37
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 17 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 37 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.

jiào
0.7821,388,298 co-occurrences
0.603323,078 co-occurrences
péi
0.52357,158 co-occurrences
chéng
0.479149,946 co-occurrences
jiǎn
0.45426 co-occurrences
guǎn
0.45346,110 co-occurrences
yùn
0.43510,530 co-occurrences
chǎng
0.42771,442 co-occurrences
tīng
0.42525,128 co-occurrences
0.424140,946 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

chūděng jiàoyùHSK 3+

primary education; elementary education

noun
fēng shān yù línHSK 4+

to restrict access to a mountainous area to promote natural forest regeneration

phrase
gāoděng jiàoyùHSK 3+

higher education

noun
jīchǔ jiàoyùHSK 4+

basic education

noun
jūn shì tǐ yùHSK 5+

military sports; military fitness (curriculum etc); abbr. to 軍體|军体

phrase
pǔtōng jiàoyùHSK 4+

general education

noun
shēng huó jiào yùHSK 3+

(Tw) life skills education; education in practical, emotional, social and moral aspects of daily living

phrase
tèshū jiàoyùHSK 5+

special education

noun
tǐyù yùndòngHSK 3+

sports

noun
tōng cái jiào yùHSK 4+

liberal education; general education

phrase
tōngshí jiàoyùHSK 4+

liberal education; general education

noun
xuéqián jiàoyùHSK 3+

early childhood education

noun

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

是国家发展的基础,政府一直在加大教投入。

Jiàoyù shì guójiā fāzhǎn de jīchǔ, zhèngfǔ yìzhí zài jiādà jiàoyù tóurù.

Education is the foundation of national development; the government has been increasing investment in education.

東方日報Feb 2026

公务员上相亲节目 夸大资产被批评教

gōng wù yuán shàng xiāng qīn jié mù kuā dà zī chǎn bèi pī píng jiào yù

Civil servants on blind date shows are criticized for exaggerating assets and education

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

前州教高官:神韵复兴传统的使命了不起

qián zhōu jiào yù gāo guān : shén yùn fù xīng chuán tǒng de shǐ mìng le bù qǐ

Former state education official: Shen Yun's mission to revive tradition is remarkable

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

谷爱凌李方慧包揽冠亚军,中国体代表团创历史

gǔ ài líng lǐ fāng huì bāo lǎn guàn yà jūn , zhōng guó tǐ yù dài biǎo tuán chuàng lì shǐ

Gu Ailing and Li Fanghui won the championship and runner-up, and the Chinese sports delegation made history

百度新闻Feb 2026

探秘体馆,乐山机关幼儿园乐艺分园解锁生活化教...

tàn mì tī yù guǎn , lè shān jī guān yòu ér yuán lè yì fēn yuán xiè suǒ shēng huó huā jiào yù . . .

Explore the gym, Leshan Organ Kindergarten Leyi Branch Park to unlock the living education...

百度新闻Feb 2026

地域文化在国际中文教中的应用

dì yù wén huā zài guó jì zhōng wén jiào yù zhōng de yīng yòng

Regional Cultures in International Chinese Language Education

Tatoeba

的最终目的是什么?

Jiàoyù de zuì zhōng mùdì shì shénme?

What is the ultimate purpose of education?

Tatoeba

世界上的教都让我失望。

Shìjiè shàng de jiàoyù dōu ràng wǒ shīwàng.

Education in this world disappoints me.

Tatoeba

现在的人教程度比以前高得多。

Xiànzài de rén jiàoyù chéngdù bǐ yǐqián gāo de duō.

People are more educated now than they used to be.

Tatoeba

我认为考试破坏教

Wǒ rènwéi kǎoshì pòhuài jiàoyù.

I think exams ruin education.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 育 (yù) mean in Chinese?
育 (yù) primarily means "to educate, to raise." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #609 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 育 have?
育 is written with 8 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 育?
The radical associated with 育 is 月 (moon). This radical appears in many characters related to moon.
What are common words containing 育?
Common words with 育 include: 教育 (jiào yù, "to educate"); 体育 (tǐ yù, "sports"); 体育馆 (tǐ yù guǎn, "gym"); 生育 (shēng yù, "to give birth to"); 发育 (fā yù, "to develop"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 育 (yù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yù: 于 ((of time or place) in), 余 ((literary) I), 鱼 (fish), 与 (and), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 育 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 育 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.