醜 (chǒu) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

醜

chǒu[chou3]Tone 3

ugly

HSK 5

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丑

Guru Deep Dive

English · ugly

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:4

Writing Balance Rule: Keep both the left hand component and the right hand components compact and well-balanced so the character does not look stretched out.

Simplification Logic: The traditional form 醜 was simplified to 丑 by replacing the complex phonetic component 鬼 (ghost) with a simplified phonetic frame, reducing stroke count significantly.

1. Meaning

ugly

shamefuldisgracefulclown (in Chinese opera)

AdjectiveNeutral#appearance#morality#theatre

Sample Usage

这件衣服太丑了。
Zhè jiàn yīfu tài chǒu le.
This piece of clothing is too ugly.
人不可貌相，海水不可斗量。
Rén bù kě màoxiàng, hǎishuǐ bù kě dǒuliáng.
Do not judge a person by their appearance (literally: ugly people cannot be judged by looks).

2. Sound

/[t͡ʂʰoʊ̯²¹⁴]/Tone: 214

醜

chǒuchou3

ˇ(214)

=chǒu

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Retroflex

Sounds like: ch sound like in 'church', but with the tongue curled back retroflex style

AspiratedRetroflex

Airflow Tactile Test: Both curled tongue AND explosive puff of air! Tissue MUST fly.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip curled back near the hard palate, releasing a strong puff of air.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -o vowel group

Sounds like: ou rhymes with 'oh' or the 'ow' in 'window'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'oh'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T3 (214)

2 → 1 → 4 (214)

3rd Tone (Low-Dipping)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 3 dips low in pitch and rises back up, similar to saying 'Huh?' in disbelief.

Sandhi: When followed by another 3rd tone syllable, chǒu changes to a 2nd tone (rising 35).

👂

Listening trap: Do not confuse chǒu (3rd tone, ugly) with zhōu (1st tone, week/province) or chóu (2nd tone, enemy). Pay attention to the retroflex aspiration and the dipping tone.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Trace a V-shaped checkmark in the air: drop sharply down from your chest height and sweep back up high.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 4 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: Keep both the left hand component and the right hand components compact and well-balanced so the character does not look stretched out.

Simplification Logic: The traditional form 醜 was simplified to 丑 by replacing the complex phonetic component 鬼 (ghost) with a simplified phonetic frame, reducing stroke count significantly.

4. Components

Radical 酉 · Wine jar radical (wine vessel or alcohol)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 酉 (Relates to containers or fermented matters historically associated with transformation and appearance.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 𠂉 (original sound: chou)

A wine jar (酉) is shown with a hand or lid element, symbolizing something spoiled, twisted, or unappealing like fermented dregs—hence ugly or shameful.

𠂉 Top/left phonetic element
酉 Wine jar radical

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

3· Phonetic Root: 酉 (yǒu)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally represented a hand or a claw gripping something, later borrowed to phoneticize the 2nd Earthly Branch (丑). In modern times it acquired the meaning of ugly or shameful.

Semantic Evolution: From its ancient association with the zodiac branch (Chǒu hour, 1 AM - 3 AM), it evolved to represent the opera clown role (小丑), and generalized to mean ugly or shameful.

In the Chinese zodiac, 丑 (chǒu) corresponds to the Ox.
It is also used as a traditional term for the clown character archetype in Peking Opera (小丑 xiǎochǒu).

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

sú / sửu

Sửu corresponds to the 3rd earthly branch in Sino-Vietnamese readings.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: シュウ (shū) / Kun: みにく.い (miniku.i)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

추

Sound Shift Bridge: The historical initial cluster maps across East Asian borrowings like Japanese 'shū' and Korean 'chu'.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine looking into an old wine jar (酉) and seeing a twisted, spooky face staring back at you—it looks so UGLY (丑) that you drop it in shame!

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

钮

niǔbuttonHas the metal radical (钅) plus 丑 for the sound.

扭

niǔto twist / to turnHas the hand radical (扌) plus 丑 for the action of twisting.

杻

chǒushackles / tree speciesHas the wood radical (木) plus 丑.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

刀(dāo)

刀 means knife and is missing the bottom enclosure found in 丑.

日(rì)

日 means sun and is a closed box shape, whereas 丑 has an open bottom structure.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

這只小狗雖然長得很___，但是非常聰明。

Clue: chǒu

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the stroke order of the top roof-like component with the knife radical (刀). Ensure you write the horizontal stroke first, then the vertical hook, followed by the internal strokes.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see the character 丑, what does it mean and how is it pronounced?

Production: How do you write the character for 'ugly' (chǒu) in 4 strokes?

醜chǒuugly

Speed:

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