(yuè): moon, month

(yuè) is a Chinese character meaning “moon, month.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #169 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, a crescent moon. Its radical form (moon) appears in many related characters such as (yǒu, to have), (péng, friend), (, clothes, serve).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. moon, month

Etymology & Origin

pictographicA crescent moon

Decomposition: ⿵冂二 (layout: surround-from-top)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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
nounyuè liangthe moon3
nounyuè qiúthe moon6
nounyuè guāngmoonlight6
nounsuì yuèyears6
nounyuè fènmonth4
nounyuè bǐngmooncake (esp. for the Mid-Autumn Festival)4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
mì yuèhoneymoon
měi yuèeach month
wǔ yuèMay
liù yuèJune
yuè jīngmenstruation
sì yuèApril
jiǔ yuèSeptember
yī yuèJanuary
shí yuèOctober
sān yuèMarch
běn yuèthis month
bā yuèAugust
èr yuèFebruary
qī yuèJuly
mǎn yuè(of a baby) to reach one month of age
100
Total compounds
43
As first character
57
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 43 as the first character, 57 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.96432,211,011 co-occurrences
nián
0.88232,477,412 co-occurrences
xún
0.501147,162 co-occurrences
zhì
0.399973,890 co-occurrences
shí
0.380796,134 co-occurrences
tái
0.364628,548 co-occurrences
jiǔ
0.354256,242 co-occurrences
0.354260,802 co-occurrences
0.348269,502 co-occurrences
liù
0.338288,156 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (36)

āyuèhúnzǐHSK 7+

pistachio

noun
bā yuè zhī guāngHSK 4+

Light in August (novel by William Faulkner 威廉·福克納|威廉·福克纳[Wei1 lian2 · Fu2 ke4 na4])

phrase
bìyuèxiūhuāHSK 5+

extremely beautiful; drop dead gorgeous

phrase
cán dōng là yuèHSK 7+

final days of the lunar year

phrase
cháng nián lěi yuèHSK 2+

variant of 長年累月|长年累月[chang2 nian2 lei3 yue4]

phrase
chéngniánlěiyuèHSK 3+

over many years and months; year in, year out

phrase
dài yuè pī xīngHSK 6+

see 披星戴月[pi1 xing1 dai4 yue4]

phrase
dēng lù yuè qiúHSK 5+

to land on the moon

phrase
hǎidǐ lāoyuèHSK 7+

to make a futile effort; to complete a winning hand by drawing the final tile before reaching the dead wall

verb
hōng yún tuō yuèHSK 7+

lit. to shade in the clouds to offset the moon (idiom); fig. a foil; a contrasting character to a main hero

phrase
hóuniánmǎyuèHSK 5+

an unknown and long time; donkey's years; God knows when

phrase
huā zhāo yuè xīHSK 5+

a beautiful day; cf Birthday of the Flowers on lunar 15th February and Mid-autumn Festival on lunar 15th August

phrase

Showing 12 of 36 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

饼是中秋节的传统食品,象征着团圆和美满。

Yuèbǐng shì Zhōngqiūjié de chuántǒng shípǐn, xiàngzhēng zhe tuányuán hé měimǎn.

Mooncakes are traditional food for the Mid-Autumn Festival, symbolizing reunion and happiness.

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国12营建许可总数录得144.8万户,为202...

měi guó yuè yíng jiàn xǔ kě zǒng shǔ lù dé . mò hù , wéi . . .

U.S. building permits totaled 1.448 million in December, a 202...

百度新闻Feb 2026

文物日历|218日·雨水:井饮图壁画砖

wén wù rì lì yuè rì yǔ shuǐ jǐng yǐn tú bì huà zhuān

Cultural Heritage Calendar | February 18 · Rain Water: Well Drinking Scene Mural Brick

百度新闻Feb 2026

腾讯:元宝日活超5000万,活达1.14亿

téng xùn yuán bǎo rì huó chāo mò , yuè huó dá . yì

Tencent: Yuanbao surpasses 50 million daily active users, with monthly active users reaching 114 million.

百度新闻Feb 2026

Kimi母公司之暗面完成超7亿美元融资,新一轮超..

mǔ gōng sī yuè zhī àn miàn wán chéng chāo yì měi yuán róng zī , xīn yī lún chāo . .

Kimi's parent company Dark Side of the Moon secures over $700 million in funding, with a new round exceeding...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...上门做年夜饭的“95后”女生:回应春节当收入..

. . . shǎng mén zuò nián yè fàn de hòu nǚ shēng huí yīng chūn jié dāng yuè shōu rù . .

Post-95s Women Cooking New Year's Eve Dinners at Clients' Homes: Responding to Their Income During the Lunar New Year Month...

Tatoeba

你可以想象在球上行走吗?

Nǐ kěyǐ xiǎngxiàng zài yuèqiú shàng xíngzǒu ma?

Can you imagine walking on the moon?

Tatoeba

为什么这个房东还不来收房租?

Wèishénme zhège yuè fángdōng hái bù lái shōu fángzū?

Why hasn't the landlord come to collect rent this month?

Tatoeba

去年八份你在哪儿?

Qùnián bāyuèfèn nǐ zài nǎr?

Where were you in August last year?

Tatoeba

这间游泳学校每个的学费是多少?

Zhè jiān yóuyǒng xuéxiào měi gè yuè de xuéfèi shì duōshao?

How much is the monthly fee of this swimming school?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yuè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 月 (yuè) mean in Chinese?
月 (yuè) primarily means "moon, month." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #169 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 月 have?
月 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 月?
The radical associated with 月 is 月 (moon). This radical appears in many characters related to moon.
What are the components of 月?
月 is composed of: 冂 (structural), 二 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵冂二 with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 月?
Common words with 月 include: 月亮 (yuè liang, "the moon"); 蜜月 (mì yuè, "honeymoon"); 月球 (yuè qiú, "the moon"); 月光 (yuè guāng, "moonlight"); 每月 (měi yuè, "each month"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 月 (yuè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yuè: 钥 (key), 曰 (to speak), 岳 (wife's parents and paternal uncles), 悦 (pleased), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 月 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 月 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.