业 (yè): industry

Meanings

1 industry
2 trade
3 line of business
4 sector

Characters

业

yè

business; industry; occupation

Examples

HSK 7-9

服务业是这个城市的支柱产业。

Fúwùyè shì zhège chéngshì de zhīzhù chǎnyè.

The service industry is the pillar industry of this city.

HSK 7-9

旅游业近年来发展很快。

Lǚyóu yè jìnniánlái fāzhǎn hěn kuài.

The tourism industry has developed rapidly in recent years.

Tips

usage

As a suffix meaning 'industry/sector', 业 is extremely productive: 服务业 (service industry), 制造业 (manufacturing), 农业 (agriculture), 工业 (industry), 商业 (commerce), 旅游业 (tourism).

grammar

业 also means 'profession' (职业), 'studies' (学业), 'business/enterprise' (企业), and 'karma' (in Buddhist context). The HSK 7 focus is on the industry/sector meaning.

Components

ideograph

业 yè

industry; profession; karma

Heavily simplified from 業 (13 strokes), which depicted a serrated wooden frame for hanging musical chimes or ceremonial bells. The 1956 reform kept only the toothed-rack silhouette and dropped the bottom 木. Modern 业 has no transparent component structure - analyze as a single ideographic unit recognizable by its forked-top profile, used today for "profession, industry, karma."

Filed under radical 一 (yī, #1) by convention. 一 is not a separate component in 业, so no strokes are highlighted.