Chinese Character Wiki
友

yǒu

friend

Pictograph of two hands together to convey the meaning "friend". 又 also represents the sound.

Components
又 sound,iconic component

又  Sound Iconic component

yòu

  

(hand), again

Depicts a hand.

又 sound,iconic component

又  Sound Iconic component

yòu

  

(hand), again

Depicts a hand.

Evolution

友 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
友 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
友 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
友 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
友 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

友  

yǒu

friend, companion; fraternity; friend

Most common words with 友
Freq.
Word
Meaning

朋友

friend

友

friend

女朋友

girlfriend

男朋友

boyfriend

友好

friendly

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (1 verified)

爱

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ɢ]ʷəʔ

hjuwX

yǒu

friend


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 93.6249% of movies

204th most common character in movies

594th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+53CB

Shuowen

“友，同志為友。从二又，相交友也。，古文友。。亦古文友。”


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