秋 meaning and stroke order
Autumn, fall; year
How to write 秋, stroke by stroke
9 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 秋
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- autumn
- fall
- harvest time
- old variant of 秋[qiu1]
- used in 鞦韆|秋千[qiu1 qian1]
How 秋 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. The time of year when farmers would burn 禾 crops 火.
Radical: 禾 (cereal), shared by 66 characters on this site.
How to remember 秋
秋 (qiū) puts grain 禾 next to fire 火. Picture autumn, the season when farmers burned the 禾 stalks left in the fields after harvest.
In everyday speech 秋天 (qiūtiān) is the normal word for autumn, while 秋季 (qiūjì) sounds more formal, like on weather reports or school calendars. 秋 also appears in festival names and set phrases such as 中秋节 (Zhōngqiū Jié). Example: 北京的秋天很美。(Běijīng de qiūtiān hěn měi.) Autumn in Beijing is beautiful.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes swap the sides and write 火 on the left, or confuse 秋 with 和 (hé), which also has 禾 on the left but 口 on the right. Remember that 秋 has fire 火 on the right.
Common words with 秋
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
秋 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 秋
Learning 秋 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 秋
How many strokes are in 秋?
秋 is written with 9 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 秋 mean?
秋 (qiū) means autumn, fall; year. A common word with it is 秋天 (qiūtiān), meaning "autumn".
How do you pronounce 秋?
秋 is pronounced qiū, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 秋?
The radical of 秋 is 禾, which carries the idea of "cereal". Dictionaries list 秋 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 秋?
The traditional form of 秋 is 秌 and 鞦. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 秋 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 秋 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 秋 is part of the HSK 2 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 2.
Why does 秋千 (qiūqiān) mean swing when it has nothing to do with autumn?
秋千 was originally written 鞦韆 with different characters. In simplified Chinese, 秋 stands in for 鞦, so here 秋 just represents the sound. It does not carry the meaning autumn in this word.
How can 秋 mean year?
Since autumn comes once a year, 秋 can stand for a whole year in literary language. You see this in 千秋 (qiānqiū), a thousand years, and in idioms like 一日不见，如隔三秋 (yí rì bú jiàn, rú gé sān qiū), one day apart feels like three years.