HSK 5 · Adjectives

丑 chǒu “ugly” in Chinese

Traditional 醜

What 丑 means

  1. ugly
  2. disgraceful
  3. shameful

How to say 丑

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale丑chǒu3rd tone, dipping

丑 in a sentence

  1. 这把椅子很丑。

    Zhè bǎ yǐzi hěn chǒu.

    This chair is ugly.

    Sentence #793289 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 一个丑男人敲了我的门。

    Yí ge chǒu nánrén qiāo le wǒ de mén.

    An ugly man knocked on my door.

    Sentence #333234 from Tatoeba

  3. 丑 can also mean “disgraceful”, as in 丑闻 “scandal”

    丑闻让他付出了失去声誉的代价。

    Chǒuwén ràng tā fùchū le shīqù shēngyù de dàijià.

    The scandal cost him his reputation.

    Sentence #427625 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 丑 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 丑 (chǒu) with each of its parts in a different colour
丑chǒuclown
  • 刀knife · dāo
  • 二two · èr

How to write 丑

丑 4 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

丑 (chǒu) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 丑 (chǒu). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 丑

Words with 丑

丑恶chǒu'è · ugly

More words: Adjectives

沉默chénmò · silent诚恳chéngkěn · sincere充分chōngfèn · ample抽象chōuxiàng · abstract臭chòu · smelly出色chūsè · remarkable初级chūjí · elementary次要cìyào · secondary

FAQs

丑 (chǒu) means “ugly” or “disgraceful”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it chǒu: chǒu with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 丑 is written 醜. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 丑 from the suggestions. Typing chou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
丑 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.