Chinese Character Wiki
由

yóu

cause

Original meaning: 

helmet

Depicts a kind of helmet worn by warriors. Based on the original meaning "helmet", now written as 胄. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

由 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
由 Seal script Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)

Seal script

Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
由 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

由  

yóu

cause, reason; from; to follow; it is for...to; reason; cause; because of; due to; to; to leave it (to sb); by (introduces passive verb)

Most common words with 由
Freq.
Word
Meaning

由

from

由于

due to

自由

freedom

理由

reason

由此

hereby

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (0 verified)

笛 冑

Sound component in 18 characters (5 verified)

油 抽 迪 邮 胄 宙 袖 軸 轴 釉 鈾 铀 柚 岫 妯 鼬 蚰 舳

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

胄

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

庙

Unknown component in 1 character (1 verified)

甹

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*l[u]

yuw

yóu

follow; from


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 79.3048% of movies

437th most common character in movies

136th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+7531


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