女 (nǚ) · female, woman

Meanings

1 female
2 woman

Characters

女

nǚ

female; woman

Examples

HSK 2

请问，女的洗手间在哪里？

Qǐngwèn, nǚ de xǐshǒujiān zài nǎlǐ?

Excuse me, where is the women's restroom?

HSK 3

女同学都很聪明。

Nǚ tóngxué dōu hěn cōngming.

The female classmates are all very smart.

HSK 4

这是女厕所。

Zhè shì nǚ cèsuǒ.

This is the women's restroom.

Tips

history

女 is a pictograph of a kneeling figure - it originated from ancient depictions of women. The character is a common radical in many characters.

usage

女 appears as a radical in dozens of characters: 妈 (mom), 姐 (sister), 好 (good), 她 (she).

Components

pictograph

女 nǚ

woman; female

Self-component. 女 is itself Kangxi radical 38. Oracle-bone forms draw a kneeling person with arms folded forward, a posture used across early East Asian iconography for women. The strong visual signature - the crossed legs of stroke 1 against the curved body of stroke 0 - makes it one of the most reliable component shapes to spot, anchoring 妈, 姐, 好, 妻, 婚 and an enormous female-related family.

Radical

Woman Kangxi #38

Highly productive radical. Marks characters about women, kinship, and (historically) gendered traits: 妈, 姐, 妹, 她, 好, 婚, 姓, 妙, 婆. Almost always sits on the left of the host character. Carries cultural baggage: many older 女-radical characters encode now-dated assumptions about women.