Meaning of 女
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- female
- woman
- daughter
- old variant of 汝[ru3]
How to use 女
女 (nǚ) usually appears inside words rather than alone, as in 女人 (nǚrén) woman, 女儿 (nǚ'ér) daughter, and 女朋友 (nǚpéngyou) girlfriend. It also works before a noun to mark something as female. Example: 她是我的女儿。(Tā shì wǒ de nǚ'ér.) She is my daughter.
女 (nǚ) is a picture of a person kneeling with arms crossed in front. Think of the crossing strokes as folded arms, and you have the character for woman.
Common mistake: Learners often type nu instead of nǚ and get 怒 (nù) or 奴 (nú), so remember the ü and the third tone. On a keyboard, type nv to get 女.
女 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
女 nǚ · female · 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
Related words
Words that share a character with 女.
| 女人 | nǚrén | woman |
| 女儿 | nǚ'ér | daughter |
| 女朋友 | nǚpéngyou | girlfriend |
| 女生 | nǚshēng | schoolgirl; female student |
| 女孩儿 | nǚháir | erhua form of 女孩[nu : 3 hai2] |
| 女子 | nǚzǐ | woman; female |
| 子女 | zǐnǚ | children; sons and daughters |
| 女士 | nǚshì | lady; madam |
| 美女 | měinǚ | beautiful woman |
| 男女 | nánnǚ | male-female; male and female |
| 孙女 | sūnnǚ | son's daughter; granddaughter |
| 女性 | nǚxìng | woman; the female sex |
Questions about 女
What does 女 mean?
女 (nǚ) means "female; woman" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 女?
女 is made of 1 character: 女 (3 strokes). That is 3 strokes in total.
Is 女 an HSK word?
Yes. 女 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Can I call a woman just 女 in Chinese?
Not usually. 女 on its own sounds incomplete or like a label, so say 女人 (nǚrén), 女士 (nǚshì) for a polite "Ms.", or 女生 (nǚshēng) for a young woman or female student.
Why does 女 sometimes read rǔ?
In old texts 女 was used as a variant of 汝 (rǔ), meaning "you". You will only meet this reading in classical Chinese, not in modern speech.