首
head; chief; first (occasion, thing etc); classifier for poems, songs etc
9 strokes
Dict coverage rank #467 U+9996
How 首 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
A deer's head 自 adorned with antlers 丷
How to remember it
heads · Heisig RSH #71
horns + nose
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Characters built with 首 as their sound component
These characters all use 首 (shǒu) as their phonetic component — compare how they read:
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 首 sound component | shǒu | chief, head, leader |
| 道 | dào | method, way; path, road |
Words containing 首
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 石首市 | Shí shǒu Shì | Shishou, a county-level city in Jingzhou City 荊州市|荆州市[Jing1 zhou1 Shi4], Hubei |
| 首尔特别市 | Shǒu ěr Tè bié shì | Seoul Special Metropolitan City, official name of the capital of South Korea |
| 国家元首 | guó jiā yuán shǒu | head of state |
| 首县 | shǒu xiàn | principal county magistrate in imperial China |
| 前首相 | qián shǒu xiàng | former prime minister |
| 首尔 | Shǒu ěr | Seoul, capital of South Korea (Chinese name adopted in 2005 to replace 漢城|汉城[Han4 cheng2]) |
| 自首 | zì shǒu | to give oneself up; to surrender (to the authorities) |
| 首家 | shǒu jiā | first (hotel of its type, store of its type etc) |
| 上首 | shàng shǒu | seat of honor; first place |
| 会首 | huì shǒu | head of a society; sponsor of an organization |
| 首发 | shǒu fā | first issue; first public showing |
| 面首 | miàn shǒu | handsome male companion; gigolo |
| 首长 | shǒu zhǎng | senior official |
| 群龙无首 | qún lóng wú shǒu | lit. a thunder of dragons without a head; fig. a group lacking a leader |
| 特首 | tè shǒu | chief executive of Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong or Macao); abbr. for 特別行政區首席執行… |
| 开首 | kāi shǒu | beginning; start; opening; in the beginning; to start; to open |
| 门首 | mén shǒu | doorway; gate; entrance |
| 低首下心 | dī shǒu xià xīn | to be fawningly submissive (idiom) |
| 石首 | Shí shǒu | see 石首市[Shi2 shou3 Shi4] |
| 首尾音 | shǒu wěi yīn | onset and rime |