虞 (yú): surname Yu, (literary) to expect, to anticipate, (literary) to be concerned about, to be apprehensive

虞 (yú) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) to expect.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虍 (semantic) and 吴 (phonetic). It ranks #4107 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 虞 tiger. Its radical form 虍 (tiger) appears in many related characters such as 虑 (lǜ, to think over), 虎 (hǔ, tiger), 虚 (xū, emptiness).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 虍 tiger13 strokesFrequency #4107虍 semantic吴 phonetic

Definitions

  1. surname Yu
  2. (literary) to expect
  3. to anticipate
  4. (literary) to be concerned about
  5. to be apprehensive

Etymology & Origin

虞

pictophonetictiger

Decomposition: ⿸虍吴 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Components:虍semantic吴phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
尔虞我诈phraseěr yú wǒ zhàlit. you hoodwink me and I cheat you (idiom)
安全无虞ān quán wú yúsafe and secure
上虞区shàng yú qūShangyu, a district of Shaoxing City 紹興市|绍兴市, Zhejiang
衣食无虞yī shí wú yúnot having to worry about food and clothes (idiom)
虞世南yú shì nánYu Shinan (558-638), politician of Sui and early Tang periods, poet and calligrapher, one of Four Great Calligraphers...
虞应龙yú yìng lóngYu Yinglong, Yuan dynasty scholar, collaborated on the geographical encyclopedia Dayuan Dayi Tongzhi 大元大一統誌|大元大一统志
不虞bù yúunexpected
上虞shàng yúsee 上虞區|上虞区
无虞wú yúnot to be worried about
虞城县yú chéng xiànYucheng, a county in Shangqiu City 商丘市, Henan
不虞匮乏bù yú kuì fáto have ample supplies (or money etc)
无虞匮乏wú yú kuì fásee 不虞匱乏|不虞匮乏
虞城yú chéngsee 虞城縣|虞城县
虞喜yú xǐYu Xi, Chinese astronomer (c. 270-345), known for discovering the earth's precession
虞翻yú fānYu Fan (164–233), Eastern Wu scholar, official, and commentator on the I Ching
18
Total compounds
39
As first character
39
As last character
22
As middle character

虞 appears in 18 compound words: 39 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 22 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

尔虞我诈ěryúwǒzhà

to cheat or deceive one another

phrase
不虞匮乏bù yú kuì fá

to have ample supplies (or money etc)

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·体育Oct 2026

虞哲峰也曾是泳池边的少年，他的引路人是游泳教练罗瑞芬。

yú zhé fēng yě céng shì yǒng chí biān de shǎo nián , tā de yǐn lù rén shì yóu yǒng jiào liàn luó ruì fēn .

Yu Zhefeng was once a young boy by the pool; his mentor was swimming coach Luo Ruifen.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

有粉丝展示了AI短剧截图，质疑和虞书欣极为相似。

yǒu fěn sī zhǎn shì le A I duǎn jù jié tú , zhì yí hé yú shū xīn jí wéi xiāng sì .

A fan shared screenshots from an AI-generated short video, questioning how strikingly similar the character looked to Yu Shuxin.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

灵璧钟馗画与灵璧石、虞姬墓并称“灵璧三绝”。

líng 璧 zhōng kuí huà yǔ líng 璧 shí , yú jī mù bìng chēng líng 璧 sān jué .

Lingbi Zhong Kui paintings, along with Lingbi stone and the Tomb of Yu Ji, are collectively known as the “Three Wonders of Lingbi.”

中国新闻网·体育Jun 2026

浙江队选手虞泽轩比赛中。

zhè jiāng duì xuǎn shǒu yú zé xuān bǐ sài zhōng .

Zhejiang team player Yu Zexuan in action.

Character Family

虍 Radical Family — Characters sharing the tiger radical

虑lǜ虚xū虎hǔ虐nüè虏lǔ虔qián

Related Characters

虑lǜ虎hǔ虚xū虏lǔ虐nüè虔qián

Homophones — Characters pronounced yú

娱yú

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 虞 (yú) mean in Chinese?
虞 (yú) primarily means "(literary) to expect." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4107 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 虞 and 误?
虞 (yú) and 误 (wù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 虍 vs 讠 (same 吴 component).
How many strokes does 虞 have?
虞 is written with 13 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 虞?
The radical associated with 虞 is 虍 (tiger). This radical appears in many characters related to tiger.
What are the components of 虞?
虞 is composed of: 虍 (semantic), 吴 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸虍吴 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 虞?
Common words with 虞 include: 尔虞我诈 (ěr yú wǒ zhà, "lit. you hoodwink me and I cheat you (idiom)"); 安全无虞 (ān quán wú yú, "safe and secure"); 上虞区 (shàng yú qū, "Shangyu, a district of Shaoxing City 紹興市|绍兴市, Zhejiang"); 衣食无虞 (yī shí wú yú, "not having to worry about food and clothes (idiom)"); 虞世南 (yú shì nán, "Yu Shinan (558-638), politician of Sui and early Tang periods, poet and calligrapher, one of Four Great Calligraphers..."). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 虞 (yú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yú: 娱 (entertainment). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 虞 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 虞 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 虞 with real-time feedback

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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.