优
excellent; superior
6 strokes
Dict coverage rank #989 U+4F18
How 优 is formed
Phono-semantic compound (形声字)
亻 (semantic, “person”) + 尤 (phonetic, yóu)
How to remember it
excellent · Heisig RSH #821
人 person + Frankenpooch
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Phonetic series: characters sharing the sound component 尤
Siblings built with the same phonetic component 尤 (yóu) — compare how they read:
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 尤 sound component | yóu | especially, particularly |
| 忧 | yōu | sad, grieving; melancholy, grief |
| 犹 | yóu | similar to, just like, as |
| 扰 | rǎo | to poke, to disturb, to annoy, to agitate |
| 疣 | yóu | wart, tumor, papule, goiter |
| 鱿 | yóu | cuttlefish |
Words containing 优
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 优生学 | yōu shēng xué | eugenics |
| 优游自得 | yōu yóu zì dé | free and at leisure (idiom); unfettered |
| 优尼科 | Yōu ní kē | Unocal (US oil company) |
| 资优生 | zī yōu shēng | brilliant student |
| 女士优先 | nǚ shì yōu xiān | Ladies first! |
| 优生 | yōu shēng | outstanding student; to give birth to healthy babies (typically involving prenatal screeni… |
| 优化 | yōu huà | to optimize; (corporate euphemism) to lay off staff |
| 优等生 | yōu děng shēng | top student; outstanding student; standout performer |
| 优点 | yōu diǎn | merit; benefit; strong point; advantage; CL:個|个[ge4],項|项[xiang4] |
| 名优 | míng yōu | excellent quality; outstanding (product); abbr. for 名牌優質|名牌优质; (old) famous actor or actre… |
| 优美 | yōu měi | graceful; fine; elegant |
| 优格 | yōu gé | (loanword) yogurt |
| 优角 | yōu jiǎo | reflex angle |
| 全优 | quán yōu | overall excellence |
| 女优 | nǚ yōu | (old) actress; adult film actress; AV actress |
| 声优 | shēng yōu | voice actor (orthographic borrowing from Japanese 声優 "seiyū") |
| 资优班 | zī yōu bān | (Tw) class composed of gifted students |
| 优先级 | yōu xiān jí | (computing) priority level; (computing) precedence (of operators) |
| 负优化 | fù yōu huà | to degrade the performance of a sold product via a system update |
| 优游 | yōu yóu | carefree; leisurely |