世
Tap the pinyin to hear it
life; age; generation; era; world; lifetime; epoch; descendant; noble
- HSK 3.0
- Level 3
- Old HSK
- Level 3
- Strokes
- 5
- Radical
- 一 +4
- Structure
- Overlaid 叠加
- Traditional
- 世
- Common rank
- #184
- Unicode
- U+4E16
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 世 is formed
Pictograph (象形字)
Three leaves on a branch
Components 廿
? unknown part
How to remember it
generation · Heisig RSH #28
十 ten
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 世
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 一生一世 | a whole lifetime (idiom); all my life | |
| 不可一世 | (idiom) to consider oneself unexcelled in the world; to be insufferably arrogant | |
| 世子 | crown prince; heir of a noble house | |
| 中新世 | Miocene (geological epoch from 24m-5m years ago) | |
| 世人 | people (in general); people around the world; everyone | |
| 人世 | the world; this world; the world of the living | |
| 一世 | generation; period of 30 years; one's whole lifetime; lifelong; age; era; times; the whole… | |
| 世风日下 | public morals are degenerating with each passing day (idiom) | |
| 上新世 | Pliocene (geological epoch from 5m-2m years ago) | |
| 世家 | family influential for generations; aristocratic family | |
| 家世 | family background | |
| 世行 | World Bank (abbr. for 世界銀行|世界银行[Shi4 jie4 Yin2 hang2]) | |
| 世上 | on earth | |
| 世面 | the wider world; diverse aspects of society | |
| 面世 | to be published (of art, literary works etc); to come out; to take shape; to see the light… | |
| 三世 | the Third (of numbered kings) | |
| 下世 | to die; future incarnation; next life; to be born; to come into the world; future generati… | |
| 出世 | to be born; to come into being; to withdraw from worldly affairs | |
| 人生一世，草木一春 | Man has but one life, grass but one spring (idiom). fig. the brevity of human existence | |
| 世事 | affairs of life; things of the world |
Sound family
These characters use 世 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 世 sound part | generation, era, age; world | |
| 泄 | drip, leak, vent; to disperse; to reduce | |
| 绁 | to shorten, to contract; tie, leash | |
| 贳 | to borrow; to pardon; loan |