Meaning of 群
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- group
- crowd
- flock, herd, pack etc
- variant of 群[qun2]
How to use 群
As a measure word, 群 counts groups of people or animals, much like "a crowd of" or "a flock of" in English. It also forms nouns such as 人群 (rénqún, crowd) and 群岛 (qúndǎo, archipelago). Example: 一群学生在等车。(Yì qún xuéshēng zài děng chē.) A group of students is waiting for the bus.
群 (qún) has 君 (jūn) on the left and 羊 (yáng, sheep) on the right. Picture a ruler, 君, standing beside his flock of sheep, 羊: sheep always move together in a group.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes write the right side as 半 or forget the extra horizontal stroke in 羊, which has three horizontal lines. Also, 群 only counts groups, so say 一群人 (yì qún rén) for a crowd but 一个人 (yí ge rén) for one person.
群 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.
群 qún · group · 13 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 群.
| 人群 | rénqún | crowd |
| 群众 | qúnzhòng | mass; multitude |
| 群体 | qúntǐ | community; colony |
| 成群结队 | chéngqún-jiéduì | (idiom) making up a group; forming a troupe; in large numbers; as a large crowd |
| 鹤立鸡群 | hèlìjīqún | a crane in a flock of chicken (idiom); way above the common; manifestly superior |
| 群岛 | qúndǎo | group of islands; archipelago |
| 族群 | zúqún | ethnic group; community |
| 群山 | qúnshān | mountains; a range of hills |
| 成群 | chéngqún | in groups; large numbers of |
| 羊群 | yángqún | flock of sheep |
| 鱼群 | yúqún | shoal of fish |
| 合群 | héqún | to fit in; to get on well with others |
Questions about 群
What does 群 mean?
群 (qún) means "group; crowd" and is used as a measure word.
How do you write 群?
群 is made of 1 character: 群 (13 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 群 an HSK word?
Yes. 群 is on the HSK 3 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 一群 and 一些?
一群 (yì qún) means a group that is together in one place, like a flock or crowd. 一些 (yìxiē) just means "some" and does not suggest the things are gathered together. You can say 一些书 (some books) but not 一群书.
Why does 群 sometimes appear as 羣 with the sheep on top?
The dictionary lists a variant form with the same meaning. Both arrangements of 君 and 羊 write the same word qún, but the side-by-side 群 is the standard form used today.