优 · yōu
superior, excellent; actor
Meanings & readings
Meaning & readings
superior, excellent; actor
- Mandarin
- yōu
- Cantonese
- jau1
Unihan definitions and selected character readings. Read the word to establish its pronunciation in context.
Readings in Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese
Readings recorded for 优 in other language traditions. These are character-level records, not word translations or interchangeable pronunciations.
Japanese 日本語
Grouped by the source’s kana notation; no frequency ranking is implied.
On’yomi · katakana
Katakana generally indicates on’yomi; hiragana generally indicates kun’yomi. The source does not identify everyday, rare, historical or name use per reading. Kana strings are preserved, including any written endings; consult a Japanese word entry for actual use.
Go deeperJisho ↗Wiktionary ↗
Korean 한국어
Hanja readings · Hangul
Source codes are separated below. They are neither sounds nor tones; a character reading alone does not specify a whole word’s pronunciation.
Go deeperNaver Hanja ↗Wiktionary ↗
Reading sources explained
- 우
- Personal-name Hanja (N)
Vietnamese Tiếng Việt
Not recorded for this exact character in this dataset. This does not mean the language has no reading.
Form & structure
Writing & identity
- Unicode
- U+4F18
- Radical
- 人 · 9
- Strokes
- 6 · Unihan
- Residual
- 4
Source record · Unihan 17.0. Individual senses and historical claims have not yet been reviewed by zimai.
Stroke order
6 strokesModern stroke order; regional conventions can differ. Stroke medians: Make Me a Hanzi via HanziLookupJS, drawn as an even pen line.
Graphical structure
How to read these symbols
⿰ left–right · ⿱ above–below · ⿻ overlap. Dotted boxes indicate positions, not missing characters. Each symbol describes the components that follow it; nested symbols describe a component in more detail. Source codes identify alternative analyses, not a writing sequence or an etymology.
BabelStone IDS · 2025-06-27. Region tags are preserved; 〾 marks approximation and {n} identifies an unencoded source component. These describe graphical structure, not historical derivation.
Words & connections
Words using 优
Character connections
No reverse component match in this collection.
History & distinctions
Related forms
優
Unihan traditional/simplified variant properties. Conversion may depend on context.
Sources & reference
Evidence & next depth
Retained Unihan properties
- kMandarin
- yōu
- kCantonese
- jau1
- kDefinition
- superior, excellent; actor
- kTotalStrokes
- 6
- kRSUnicode
- 9.4
- kTraditionalVariant
- U+4F18 U+512A
- kSimplifiedVariant
- U+4F18
- kTGH
- 2013:461
Readings across dictionaries
- Hanyu Da Zidian
- yóu,yōu 10120.020
- Xiandai Hanyu · 1983
- yōu 1394.010
- Tongyong Guifan · 2013
- yōu 442.160
- Reading counts · XDHYPLCD
- yōu(287)