liù
number HSK 1 #802

Meanings

  1. 1 six
  2. 2 6

Characters

Examples

HSK 1
Tā yǒu liù gè háizi.
He has six children.
HSK 1
Xīngqīliù shì wǒ zuì xǐhuān de yī tiān.
Saturday is my favorite day of the week.
HSK 2
Liùyuè shì xiàtiān.
June is summer.

Tips

culture
sounds like ('smooth, flowing'), making it a lucky number associated with things going smoothly. '666' is internet slang for 'awesome / skilled' in China - the opposite of its Western connotation.
register
has a rare second reading (lù) used only in a handful of place names: 六合 (Luhe District of Nanjing) and 六安 (Lu'an, the prefecture in Anhui famous for 六安瓜片 tea). Treat these as fixed proper-noun exceptions - everywhere else, is liù.

Components

radical
eight; splay
Bottom radical (eight, splayed lines) is the indexing radical of . Even though etymologically has nothing to do with 'six', the splayed-line shape is unmistakable beneath the lid. Useful pedagogy: think of as 'a small lid over a splaying-eight' - the indexing radical that lets you find it in any traditional dictionary.
ideograph
tóu
lid radical
The 'lid' radical - a horizontal plus downward dot used as a graphic cap on many chars (, , ). Here it functions as a positional cover above the splayed legs below to form the 'six' silhouette. Strict etymology says originally pictured a small hut.

Stroke Order

liù