HSK 1 · Numbers

五 wǔ “five” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 五 means

  1. five
  2. 5

How to say 五

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale五wǔ3rd tone, dipping

五 in a sentence

  1. 现在是一点五十分。

    Xiànzài shì yī diǎn wǔshí fēn.

    It’s ten minutes to two.

    Sentence #13994928 from Tatoeba

  2. 七减二是五。

    Qī jiǎn èr shì wǔ.

    Seven minus two is five.

    Sentence #10002489 from Tatoeba

How 五 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 五 (wǔ) drawn as one shape
五wǔfive

五 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 五

五 4 strokes

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

五 (wǔ) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 五 (wǔ). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 五

More words: Numbers & Money

一yī · one二èr · two三sān · three四sì · four六liù · six七qī · seven八bā · eight九jiǔ · nine

FAQs

五 (wǔ) means “five” or “5”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it wǔ: wǔ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 五 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type wu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 五 from the suggestions. Typing wu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
五 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

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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.