帚 (zhǒu): broom

帚 (zhǒu) is a Chinese character meaning “broom.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彐 (structural). It ranks #3031 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 帚 a hand 巾 holding a broom with the head 彐 held up. Its radical form 巾 (cloth) appears in many related characters such as 常 (cháng, always), 希 (xī, to hope), 帮 (bāng, to help).

Native pronunciation

HSK 7-9 Radical: 巾 cloth8 strokesFrequency #3031彐 structural

Definitions

broom

Etymology & Origin

帚

pictographicA hand 巾 holding a broom with the head 彐 held up

Decomposition: ⿱彐⿱冖巾 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:彐structural

Stroke Order

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
扫帚	sào zhou	broom
笤帚	tiáo zhou	whisk broom
扫帚星	sào zhou xīng	comet
敝帚千金	bì zhǒu qiān jīn	lit. my worn-out broom, a thousand in gold (idiom)
敝帚自珍	bì zhǒu zì zhēn	to value the broom as one's own (idiom)
筅帚	xiǎn zhǒu	(dialect) pot-scrubbing brush, made from bamboo strips
炊帚	chuī zhou	pot-scrubbing brush, made from bamboo strips

Total compounds

As first character

As last character

As middle character

帚 appears in 7 compound words: 0 as the first character, 57 as the last, and 43 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 帚 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

扫sǎo

0.6221,152 co-occurrences

虫chóng

0.476336 co-occurrences

袋dài

0.427192 co-occurrences

霉méi

0.41542 co-occurrences

捆kǔn

0.41242 co-occurrences

柄bǐng

0.37566 co-occurrences

尾wěi

0.363324 co-occurrences

魔mó

0.352282 co-occurrences

菊jú

0.34554 co-occurrences

奖jiǎng

0.336222 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

敝帚千金bìzhǒuqiānjīnHSK 7+

to cherish something of little value simply because it is one's own

phrase

敝帚自珍bìzhǒuzìzhēnHSK 7+

to cherish something of little value simply because it is one's own

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

帚字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

zhǒu zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "帚" is not used very often in everyday life.

Character Family

巾 Radical Family — Characters sharing the cloth radical

帮bāng 常cháng 带dài 帝dì 巾jīn 帽mào 师shī 市shì 希xī 帜zhì

Related Characters

常cháng 希xī 帮bāng 带dài 帽mào 巾jīn 帜zhì 帝dì 师shī 市shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 帚 (zhǒu) mean in Chinese?

帚 (zhǒu) primarily means "broom." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3031 in character frequency.

How many strokes does 帚 have?

帚 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 帚?

The radical associated with 帚 is 巾 (cloth). This radical appears in many characters related to cloth.

What are the components of 帚?

帚 is composed of: 彐 (structural), undefined (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱彐⿱冖巾 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.

What are common words containing 帚?

Common words with 帚 include: 扫帚 (sào zhou, "broom"); 笤帚 (tiáo zhou, "whisk broom"); 扫帚星 (sào zhou xīng, "comet"); 敝帚千金 (bì zhǒu qiān jīn, "lit. my worn-out broom, a thousand in gold (idiom)"); 敝帚自珍 (bì zhǒu zì zhēn, "to value the broom as one's own (idiom)"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.

Is 帚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

Yes, 帚 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 帚 with real-time feedback

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