Chinese Character Wiki
牛

niú

cow

Pictograph of the head of a cow.

Evolution

牛 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
牛 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
牛 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

牛  

niú

cow, ox, bull; KangXi radical93; ox; cow; bull; CL:條|条[tiáo],頭|头[tóu]; newton (abbr. for 牛頓|牛顿[niú​dùn]); (slang) awesome

牛  

Niú

surname Niu

Most common words with 牛
Freq.
Word
Meaning

牛

ox

牛奶

cow's milk

牛仔

cowboy

牛肉

beef

牛排

steak

Component uses

Meaning component in 32 characters (4 verified)

物 特 件 犀 牧 牲 牵 牽 牺 犧 牟 牡 犁 犊 犢 犟 犄 犒 牝 牦 牯 犍 荦 牾 犏 牿 牴 牸 犂 犋 犎 犪

Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)

疑

Iconic component in 3 characters (3 verified)

解 半 牢

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ŋ]ʷə (< uvular?)

ngjuw

niú

ox


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 41.8228% of movies

822nd most common character in movies

1018th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+725B

Shuowen

“牛，大牲也，牛件也。件，事理也。象角頭三，封尾之形。”


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