学 (xué) is a Chinese character meaning “to study”. It is written from ⺌ (three short strokes fanning out at the top of a character) and 冖 (cover) and 子 (child; son), and takes 8 strokes.
Build the character for “to study; to learn”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
⺌ + 冖 + 子
Top–middle–bottom structure
- ⺌ three short strokes fanning out at the top of a character unknown
- 冖 cover · mì unknown
- 子 child; son · zǐ unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+5B66 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 eight-stroke modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-3 = ⺌, 4-5 = 冖, 6-8 = 子)
Memory aid
Three short strokes (⺌) of talk come down through a cover (冖) onto the child (子) sitting under it — the child soaks up every word: 学, to study.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
8 strokes
In real words
- 学习xué xíto study; to learn学 = xuéHSK 1
- 学会xué huìto learn how to do something; to master学 = xué
- 哲学zhé xuéphilosophy学 = xué
- 学徒xué túapprentice学 = xué
- 学校xué xiàoschool学 = xuéHSK 1
- 学派xué pàischool of thought; academic school学 = xué
- 学院xué yuàncollege; academy学 = xué
- 科学kē xuéscience; scientific学 = xué
- 逃学táo xuéto skip school; to play truant学 = xué
Go deeper
All readings
to study; to learn
to study; to learn; to imitate; branch of knowledge, discipline
学习；效法。也指某一门知识或学科。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 学习xué xíto study; to learn学 = xuéHSK 1
- 学会xué huìto learn how to do something; to master学 = xué
- 哲学zhé xuéphilosophy学 = xué
- 学徒xué túapprentice学 = xué
- 学校xué xiàoschool学 = xuéHSK 1
- 学派xué pàischool of thought; academic school学 = xué
- 学院xué yuàncollege; academy学 = xué
- 科学kē xuéscience; scientific学 = xué
- 逃学táo xuéto skip school; to play truant学 = xué
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 学 mean?
学 (xué) means to study; to learn; to imitate; branch of knowledge, discipline.
How do you pronounce 学?
It is pronounced xué.
What parts is 学 made of?
⺌ (three short strokes fanning out at the top of a character) and 冖 (cover) and 子 (child; son). The recorded source is: Unicode U+5B66 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 eight-stroke modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-3 = ⺌, 4-5 = 冖, 6-8 = 子). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 学 have?
8. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 学?
子. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 学?
Common ones are 学习 and 学会. The reading of 学 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.