余
Tap the pinyin to hear it
(literary) I; me; variant of 餘|余[yu2]
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 余 is formed
How to remember it
excess · Heisig RSH #1283
umbrella + clothing conveyor + 小 small — as a component also called: scale
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 余
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 心有余，力不足 | The will is there, but not the strength (idiom, from Confucian Analects).; I really want t… | |
| 比上不足，比下有余 | neither the best nor the worst; not too bad; better than some | |
| 心有余而力不足 | the will is there, but not the strength (idiom); the spirit is willing but the flesh is we… | |
| 行有余力 | after that, any remaining energy (idiom from Analects); time for extracurricular activitie… | |
| 业余大学 | college for people who attend after work | |
| 大余县 | Dayu, a county in Ganzhou City 贛州市|赣州市[Gan4 zhou1 Shi4], Jiangxi | |
| 余数定理 | the Remainder Theorem | |
| 年年有余 | lit. (may you) have abundance year after year; (an auspicious saying for the Lunar New Yea… | |
| 新余市 | Xinyu, prefecture-level city in Jiangxi Province 江西省[Jiang1 xi1 Sheng3] | |
| 成事不足，败事有余 | unable to accomplish anything but liable to spoil everything (idiom); unable to do anythin… | |
| 余江区 | Yujiang, a district of Yingtan City 鷹潭市|鹰潭市[Ying1 tan2 Shi4], Jiangxi | |
| 余干县 | Yugan, a county in Shangrao City 上饒市|上饶市[Shang4 rao2 Shi4], Jiangxi | |
| 业余爱好者 | hobbyist; amateur | |
| 虎口余生 | lit. to escape from the tiger's mouth (idiom); fig. to narrowly escape death | |
| 业余者 | amateur | |
| 留有余地 | to leave some leeway; to allow for the unpredictable | |
| 大余 | see 大餘縣|大余县[Da4 yu2 Xian4] | |
| 余生 | the remaining years of one's life; survival (after a disaster) | |
| 余地 | margin; leeway | |
| 同余式 | congruence (math.); equation for residue modulo some number |
Sound family
These characters use 余 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 余 sound part | surplus, remainder; surname | |
| 途 | way, road, path, journey, course | |
| 斜 | slanting, sloping, inclined | |
| 涂 | to smear, to scribble, to daub; surname | |
| 徐 | slowly, quietly, calmly; dignified, composed | |
| 叙 | to express, to state; to relate, to narrate | |
| 荼 | a bitter vegetable | |
| 嵞 | a mountain in Zhejiang | |
| 狳 | armadillo | |
| 蜍 | toad (2) | |
| 酴 | yeast; wine; to leaven, to ferment |