Meaning of 石油
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- oil
- petroleum
How to use 石油
石油 refers to crude oil or petroleum as a natural resource, so it shows up in news, economics, and industry talk. For fuel you put in a car, Chinese uses 汽油 (qìyóu) instead. Example: 这个国家有很多石油。(Zhège guójiā yǒu hěn duō shíyóu.) This country has a lot of oil.
石油 is literally "stone oil": 石 (shí) means stone and 油 (yóu) means oil. Picture oil pumped up from deep inside rock.
Common mistake: Learners often use 石油 for car fuel, as in "buying 石油 at the gas station," but that should be 汽油 (qìyóu). Also keep 石 in the second tone (shí) and do not confuse it with 右 (yòu), which looks similar.
石油 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.
石 shí · stone · 5 strokes
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- 2
- 3
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- 5
油 yóu · oil · 8 strokes
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- 2
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Related words
Words that share a character with 石油.
Questions about 石油
What does 石油 mean?
石油 (shíyóu) means "oil; petroleum" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 石油?
石油 is made of 2 characters: 石 (5 strokes), 油 (8 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 石油 an HSK word?
Yes. 石油 is on the HSK 3 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Can 石油 mean cooking oil?
No. Cooking oil is 食用油 (shíyòngyóu) or simply 油 (yóu) in context. 石油 only means petroleum.
How do you say oil price or oil company in Chinese?
Oil price is 油价 (yóujià), and international crude prices are often called 石油价格 (shíyóu jiàgé). An oil company is 石油公司 (shíyóu gōngsī).