Meaning of 搜
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- to search
- variant of 蒐|搜[sou1]
- (bound form) to collect; to gather
How to use 搜
搜 is used alone in casual speech, especially for looking things up online, and it also appears in many compounds like 搜索 (sōusuǒ) and 搜集 (sōují). Example: 你上网搜一下吧。(Nǐ shàngwǎng sōu yíxià ba.) Just search for it online.
搜 (sōu) has the hand radical 扌 on the left, so picture a hand busy digging through things on the right side. A searching hand is easy to link to the meaning "to search."
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 搜 (sōu) with 瘦 (shòu, thin) and 艘 (sōu, measure word for ships), which share the same right side. Check the left part: 扌 for hand means searching, 疒 means thin, and 舟 means boats.
搜 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.
搜 sōu · to search · 12 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 搜.
| 搜索 | sōusuǒ | to search (a place, a database, online etc); to search for (sth) |
| 搜查 | sōuchá | to search |
| 搜寻 | sōuxún | to search; to look for |
| 搜集 | sōují | to gather; to collect |
| 搜救 | sōujiù | search and rescue |
| 搜捕 | sōubǔ | to hunt and arrest (fugitives); to track down and arrest |
| 搜身 | sōushēn | to do a body search; to frisk |
| 搜刮 | sōuguā | to rake in (money); to plunder; to milk people dry |
| 搜索队 | sōusuǒduì | search party |
Questions about 搜
What does 搜 mean?
搜 (sōu) means "to search; variant of 蒐|搜[sou1]" and is used as a verb.
How do you write 搜?
搜 is made of 1 character: 搜 (12 strokes). That is 12 strokes in total.
Is 搜 an HSK word?
Yes. 搜 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 搜索 and 搜查?
搜索 (sōusuǒ) is general searching, often for information online or in a database. 搜查 (sōuchá) usually means an official search of a place or person, for example by police.
How do you say "search it on Baidu" or "look it up" in Chinese?
People often say 搜一下 (sōu yíxià), meaning "do a quick search." For a specific engine you can say 百度一下 (Bǎidù yíxià).