奴 meaning and stroke order
Slave, servant
How to write 奴, stroke by stroke
5 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
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- 5
Meaning of 奴
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- slave
How 奴 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. A woman 女 standing by her master's right hand 又; 女 also provides the pronunciation.
Radical: 女 (woman), shared by 156 characters on this site.
How to remember 奴
The left side is 女 (nǚ, woman) and the right side is 又, a hand. Picture a woman standing at her master's right hand, ready to serve, and you have 奴 (nú), a slave or servant.
奴 rarely stands alone in modern Chinese. It mostly appears in compounds like 奴隶 (núlì, slave) and 奴役 (núyì, to enslave). It also shows up in modern slang such as 房奴 (fángnú), a person who is a slave to a mortgage. Example: 他不想当房奴。(Tā bù xiǎng dāng fángnú.) He doesn't want to be a slave to a mortgage.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 奴 (nú) with 努 (nǔ, to strive) and 怒 (nù, anger). All three share 奴 as a sound part, so check the tone and the bottom piece: 努 has 力 underneath and 怒 has 心 underneath.
Common words with 奴
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
奴 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 奴
Learning 奴 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 奴
How many strokes are in 奴?
奴 is written with 5 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 奴 mean?
奴 (nú) means slave, servant. A common word with it is 奴隶 (núlì), meaning "slave".
How do you pronounce 奴?
奴 is pronounced nú, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 奴?
The radical of 奴 is 女, which carries the idea of "woman". Dictionaries list 奴 under this radical.
Is 奴 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 奴 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Is 奴才 (núcai) an insult?
Yes. In modern speech 奴才 is used to call someone a flunkey or a bootlicker. In Qing dynasty dramas you will also hear servants and officials use it humbly to refer to themselves.
What does 奴 mean in words like 卡奴 or 房奴?
In these newer words 奴 means someone burdened by or tied to something. 卡奴 (kǎnú) is a person trapped by credit card debt, and 房奴 (fángnú) is someone weighed down by a home loan.