(zhòu): sudden, unexpected, abrupt

(zhòu) is a Chinese character meaning “sudden.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2013 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, horse. Its radical form (horse) appears in many related characters such as (, horse), (, to ride), (yàn, to test, to verify).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sudden
  2. unexpected
  3. abrupt

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichorse

Decomposition: ⿰马聚 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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
nounbù zhòuprocedure6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhòu jiàngto fall rapidly
zhòu yǔshower
bào fēng zhòu yǔviolent wind and rainstorm
zhòu ránsuddenly
zhòu biànto change suddenly
fēn bù zhòustep by step
zhòu sǐ shìsudden death style play-off (sporting competition)
xīn zàng zhòu tíngcardiac arrest
kuáng fēng zhòu yǔstrong wind and heavy rain (idiom)
zhòu sǐsudden death (play-off in sporting competition)
jí zhòurapid
zhòu jiǎnto decrease rapidly
13
Total compounds
54
As first character
23
As last character
23
As middle character

appears in 13 compound words: 54 as the first character, 23 as the last, and 23 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.

0.63520,494 co-occurrences
zāng
0.497618 co-occurrences
jiǎn
0.440996 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.428546 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.39778 co-occurrences
0.378756 co-occurrences
chí
0.37484 co-occurrences
jiàng
0.3651,116 co-occurrences
0.36284 co-occurrences
suǒ
0.36230 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

bàofēngzhòuyǔHSK 6+

violent storm and gusty rain

phrase
kuángfēngzhòuyǔHSK 6+

violent storm and gusty rain; dangerous situation

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

天气然变冷,记得多穿衣服。

Tiānqì zhòurán biàn lěng, jìde duō chuān yīfu.

The weather suddenly turned cold; remember to wear more clothes.

Fx168 Finance NetworkMar 2026

...一幕,“三桶油”连续2天涨停,仅A股市值增近5200亿元,相当于在两天内再造一个...

. . . yī mù , sān tǒng yóu lián xù 2 tiān zhǎng tíng , jǐn A gǔ shì zhí zhòu zēng jìn 5 2 0 0 yì yuán , xiāng dāng yú zài liǎng tiān nèi zài zào yī gè . . .

... In one scene, the "three barrels of oil" rose and fell for 2 consecutive days, and the market value of the A-share market increased by nearly 520 billion yuan, which is equivalent to creating another one within two days...

99 健康网Feb 2026

男科预约留电话,快速了解线上就诊预约步指南

nán kē yù yuē liú diàn huà , kuài sù le jiě xiàn shàng jiù zhěn yù yuē bù zhòu zhǐ nán

Leave the phone number for andrology appointments to quickly understand the step-by-step guide for online medical appointments

NewsFeb 2026

...连斯基:乌美双方周四将讨论结束俄乌冲突步等问题

. . . lián sī jī wū měi shuāng fāng zhōu sì jiāng tǎo lùn jié shù é wū chōng tū bù zhòu děng wèn tí

... Lensky: Ukraine and the United States will discuss steps to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Thursday

NewsFeb 2026

2月打诈数据出炉!春节案件数降原因曝

yuè dǎ zhà shǔ jù chū lú ! chūn jié àn jiàn shǔ zhòu jiàng yuán yīn pù

February fraud data released! The reason for the sharp drop in the number of cases during the Spring Festival was exposed

NewsFeb 2026

Soya至亲逝 狂折108朵莲花放棺木火化

zhì qīn zhòu shì kuáng zhé duǒ lián huā fàng guān mù huǒ huà

Soya's Beloved Passes Away Suddenly; 108 Lotus Flowers Frenetically Folded and Placed in Coffin for Cremation

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhòu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 骤 (zhòu) mean in Chinese?
骤 (zhòu) primarily means "sudden." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2013 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 骤 have?
骤 is written with 17 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 骤?
The radical associated with 骤 is 马 (horse). This radical appears in many characters related to horse.
What are the components of 骤?
骤 is composed of: 马 (semantic), 聚 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰马聚 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 骤?
Common words with 骤 include: 步骤 (bù zhòu, "procedure"); 骤降 (zhòu jiàng, "to fall rapidly"); 骤雨 (zhòu yǔ, "shower"); 暴风骤雨 (bào fēng zhòu yǔ, "violent wind and rainstorm"); 骤然 (zhòu rán, "suddenly"). There are over 13 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 骤 (zhòu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhòu: 州 (prefecture), 舟 (boat), 周 (week, around), 洲 (continent), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 骤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 骤 and the traditional form is 驟.

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.