俗

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custom; convention; popular; common; coarse; vulgar; secular

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Formation & memory

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Phono-semantic compound (形声字)

亻 meaning “person” + 谷 sound ( gǔ )

Components 亻谷

custom · Heisig RSH #2095

人 person + 谷 valley

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
通俗科学	tōng sú kē xué	popular science
通俗小说	tōng sú xiǎo shuō	popular fiction; light literature
民国通俗演义	Mín guó tōng sú yǎn yì	Dramatized history of Republican China until 1927 by Cai Dongfan 蔡東藩\|蔡东藩, and later chapte…
约定俗成	yuē dìng sú chéng	established by popular usage (idiom); common usage agreement; customary convention
民俗学	mín sú xué	folklore
俗体字	sú tǐ zì	nonstandard form of a Chinese character
俗世奇人	sú shì qí rén	Extraordinary people in our ordinary world, short stories by novelist Feng Jicai 馮驥才\|冯骥才[F…
低俗之风	dī sú zhī fēng	vulgar style (used of items to be censored)
食人俗	shí rén sú	cannibalism
不落俗套	bù luò sú tào	to conform to no conventional pattern; unconventional; offbeat
俗话说	sú huà shuō	as the proverb says; as they say...
历朝通俗演义	lì cháo tōng sú yǎn yì	Dramatized history of successive dynasties (from Han to Republican China) by Cai Dongfan 蔡…
不俗	bù sú	impressive; out of the ordinary
俗人	sú rén	common people; laity (i.e. not priests)
俗家	sú jiā	layman; layperson; original home of a monk
俗气	sú qì	tacky; inelegant; in poor taste; vulgar; banal
低俗化	dī sú huà	vulgarization
俗随时变	sú suí shí biàn	customs change with time (idiom); other times, other manners; O Tempora, O Mores!
俗事	sú shì	everyday routine; ordinary affairs
风俗	fēng sú	social custom; CL:個\|个[ge4]

Characters sharing the sound component 谷 — compare how they read.