曰 (yuē): to speak, to say

曰 (yuē) is a Chinese character meaning “to speak.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (structural) and 一 (structural). It ranks #1644 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 曰 picture of an open 一 mouth 口. Its radical form 曰 (say) appears in many related characters such as 更 (gèng, more), 替 (tì, to substitute for), 曲 (qū, bent).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to speak
  2. to say

Etymology & Origin

曰

ideographicPicture of an open 一 mouth 口

Decomposition: ⿴口一 (layout: full-surround)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
美其名曰phraseměi qí míng yuēto call by the glorified name of (idiom)
子曰phrasezǐ yuēConfucius says:
号曰hào yuēto be named
诗曰shī yuēa poem goes:
4
Total compounds
0
As first character
100
As last character
0
As middle character

曰 appears in 4 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 as the last, and 0 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 曰 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

谓wèi
0.5333,548 co-occurrences
叹tàn
0.481710 co-occurrences
昔xī
0.4381,060 co-occurrences
泣qì
0.434630 co-occurrences
涕tì
0.425232 co-occurrences
答dá
0.4242,182 co-occurrences
臣chén
0.4193,518 co-occurrences
君jūn
0.3832,370 co-occurrences
莽mǎng
0.382272 co-occurrences
恭gōng
0.382834 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

美其名曰měiqímíngyuēHSK 7+

to call it by the fine-sounding name of

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个曰字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě yuē zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "日" had different meanings in classical Chinese.

中国新闻网·文化Oct 2026

书中,司马光以“臣光曰”开篇的史论共119条,集中表达了他的历史观。

shū zhōng , sī mǎ guāng yǐ chén guāng yuē kāi piān de shǐ lùn gòng 1 1 9 tiáo , jí zhōng biǎo dá le tā de lì shǐ guān .

In the book, Sima Guang’s historical commentaries—which begin with the phrase “This servant, Guang, says”—number 119 in total and collectively express his view of history.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

换上古代服装,上海游客富曰、邹琼、胡南三人变身剧中角色,准备演绎一场古代“认亲”戏。

huàn shàng gǔ dài fú zhuāng , shàng hǎi yóu kè fù yuē , 邹 Qióng , hú nán sān rén biàn shēn jù zhōng jiǎo sè , zhǔn bèi yǎn yì yī chǎng gǔ dài rèn qīn xì .

Dressed in ancient costumes, three Shanghai tourists—Fu Yue, Zou Qiong, and Hu Nan—transformed into characters from the play and prepared to perform an ancient “family reunion” scene.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

子曰,此道之美也,莫之御也。

zǐ yuē , cǐ dào zhī měi yě , mò zhī yù yě .

The Master said, “This is the beauty of the Way; nothing can stand in its way.”

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

高帝曰:羊肉何如鱼羹?

gāo dì yuē : yáng ròu hé rú yú 羹 ?

The Emperor asked, “How does mutton compare to fish soup?”

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

《黄帝内经》曰:肥贵人是“高粱之疾”,即吃得太好导致肥胖。

huáng dì nèi jīng yuē : féi guì rén shì gāo liáng zhī jí , jí chī dé tài hǎo dǎo zhì féi pàng .

The *Huangdi Neijing* states that obesity among the wealthy is a “sorghum disease”—that is, obesity caused by eating too well.

Character Family

曰 Radical Family — Characters sharing the say radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced yuē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 曰 (yuē) mean in Chinese?
曰 (yuē) primarily means "to speak." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1644 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 曰 have?
曰 is written with 4 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 曰?
The radical associated with 曰 is 曰 (say). This radical appears in many characters related to say.
What are the components of 曰?
曰 is composed of: 口 (structural), 一 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿴口一 with a full-surround layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 曰?
Common words with 曰 include: 美其名曰 (měi qí míng yuē, "to call by the glorified name of (idiom)"); 子曰 (zǐ yuē, "Confucius says:"); 号曰 (hào yuē, "to be named"); 诗曰 (shī yuē, "a poem goes:"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 曰 (yuē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yuē: 月 (moon, month), 越 (generic word for peoples or states of south China or south Asia at different historical periods), 跃 (to jump), 阅 (to read, to review), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 曰 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 曰 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 曰 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.