禹 (yǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “Yu, the legendary ruler who tamed the floods and founded”. It is written from 丿 (left-falling stroke) and 口 (mouth) and 禸 (animal track), and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “Yu the Great — the ruler who tamed the floods”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丿 + 口 + 禸
Overlapping structure
Structure from: hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（现代字形拆分：第 1 笔＝丿，第 2–4 笔＝口，第 5–9 笔＝禸）
Memory aid
One slash (丿) marks the sky, a mouth (口) sits below it, and the whole thing is wrapped by 禸, the sign for an animal's track. Picture Yu the Great calling out from the riverbank, his footprints left all along the flood.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 大禹Dà YǔYu the Great禹 = yǔ
- 大禹治水Dà Yǔ zhì shuǐYu the Great tames the floods禹 = yǔ
Go deeper
All readings
Yu (the Great)
Yu, the legendary ruler who tamed the floods and founded the Xia dynasty; also a surname
大禹，传说中治理洪水、开创夏朝的君主；也用作姓氏。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 大禹Dà YǔYu the Great禹 = yǔ
- 大禹治水Dà Yǔ zhì shuǐYu the Great tames the floods禹 = yǔ
Easy to confuse with
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 禹 mean?
禹 (yǔ) means Yu, the legendary ruler who tamed the floods and founded the Xia dynasty; also a surname.
How do you pronounce 禹?
It is pronounced yǔ.
What parts is 禹 made of?
丿 (left-falling stroke) and 口 (mouth) and 禸 (animal track). The recorded source is: hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（现代字形拆分：第 1 笔＝丿，第 2–4 笔＝口，第 5–9 笔＝禸）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 禹 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 禹?
禸. 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 禹?
Common ones are 大禹 and 大禹治水. The reading of 禹 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.