姑
Spell out: + =
paternal aunt; husband's sister; husband's mother (old); nun; for the time being (literary)
8 strokes
Dict coverage rank #1,497 U+59D1
How 姑 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
An older 古 woman 女; 古 also provides the pronunciation
How to remember it
father’s sister · Heisig RSH #1518
女 woman + 古 ancient
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Characters built with 姑 as their sound component
These characters all use 姑 (gū) as their phonetic component — compare how they read:
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 姑 sound component | gū | father's sister; husband's mother |
| 菇 | gū | mushroom |
Words containing 姑
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 小姑子 | xiǎo gū zi | (coll.) husband's younger sister; sister-in-law |
| 美姑县 | Měi gū Xiàn | Meigu, a county in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture 涼山彝族自治州|凉山彝族自治州[Liang2 shan1 Yi2 zu2… |
| 美姑河 | Měi gū Hé | Meigu River in south Sichuan |
| 姑苏区 | Gū sū Qū | Gusu, a district of Suzhou City 蘇州市|苏州市[Su1 zhou1 Shi4], Jiangsu |
| 黄花姑娘 | huáng huā gū niang | maiden; virgin girl |
| 皇姑区 | Huáng gū Qū | Huanggu, a district of Shenyang City 瀋陽市|沈阳市[Shen3 yang2 Shi4], Liaoning |
| 大姑 | dà gū | father's oldest sister; husband's older sister; sister-in-law |
| 姑子 | gū zi | husband's sister; (coll.) Buddhist nun |
| 小姑 | xiǎo gū | father's youngest sister; husband's younger sister; sister-in-law |
| 家姑 | jiā gū | (polite) father's sisters |
| 道姑 | dào gū | Daoist nun |
| 七大姑八大姨 | qī dà gū bā dà yí | distant relatives |
| 美姑 | Měi gū | see 美姑縣|美姑县[Mei3 gu1 Xian4] |
| 尼姑 | ní gū | Buddhist nun |
| 度姑 | dù gū | (Tw) to doze off (from Taiwanese 盹龜, Tai-lo pr. [tuh-ku]) |
| 三姑六婆 | sān gū liù pó | women with disreputable or illegal professions (idiom) |
| 姑夫 | gū fu | father's sister's husband; husband of paternal aunt; uncle |
| 表姑 | biǎo gū | father's female cousin via female line |
| 祖姑母 | zǔ gū mǔ | father's father's sister; great aunt |
| 红姑娘 | hóng gū niang | Chinese lantern plant; winter cherry; strawberry ground-cherry; Physalis alkekengi |