HSK 6 · Emotions

孤独 gūdú “lonely” in Chinese

Traditional 孤獨

What 孤独 means

  1. lonely
  2. solitary

How to say 孤独

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale孤gū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale独dú2nd tone, rising

孤独 in a sentence

  1. 我觉得很孤独。

    Wǒ juéde hěn gūdú.

    I felt lonely.

    Sentence #334544 from Tatoeba

  2. 她不在，我很孤独。

    Tā bú zài, wǒ hěn gūdú.

    I’m lonely without her.

    Sentence #375290 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我在这座小镇感到很孤独。

    Wǒ zài zhè zuò xiǎozhèn gǎndào hěn gūdú.

    I feel very lonely in this small town.

    Sentence #9965444 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 孤独 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 孤 (gū) with each of its parts in a different colour
孤gūlone
  • 子child · zǐMeaning part
  • 瓜melon · guāSound part

子 hints at the meaning (child); 瓜 (guā) hints at the sound. Compare it with gū.

The character 独 (dú) with each of its parts in a different colour
独dúalone
  • 犭dog form of 犬 · quǎnMeaning part
  • 虫insect · chóngSound part

犭 hints at the meaning (dog); 虫 (chóng) hints at the sound. Compare it with dú.

How to write 孤独

孤 8 strokes · 独 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 孤独

Words with 孤

孤立gūlì · isolated

Words with 独

独立dúlì · independent独特dútè · unique单独dāndú · alone独裁dúcái · dictatorship唯独wéidú · only得天独厚détiāndúhòu · richly endowed by nature

More words: Emotions & Attitudes

感慨gǎnkǎi · to sigh with emotion隔阂géhé · estrangement共鸣gòngmíng · resonance关怀guānhuái · to care for顾虑gùlǜ · worry过瘾guòyǐn · to satisfy a craving恨不得hènbude · to be dying to狠心hěnxīn · heartless

FAQs

孤独 (gūdú) means “lonely” or “solitary”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it gūdú: gū with a 1st tone, then dú with a 2nd 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, 孤独 is written 孤獨. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gudu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 孤独 from the suggestions. Typing gudu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
孤独 is an HSK 6 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.