候

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to wait; to inquire after; to watch; season; climate; (old) period of five days

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Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Phono-semantic compound (形声字)

亻 meaning “person” + 矦 sound ( hóu )

Components 亻矦

wait · Heisig RSH #1272

侯 marquis + walking stick

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

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

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
有时候	yǒu shí hou	sometimes
时候	shí hou	time; length of time; moment; period
气候学家	qì hòu xué jiā	a climatologist
小时候儿	xiǎo shí hou r	erhua variant of 小時候\|小时候[xiao3 shi2 hou5]
海洋性气候	hǎi yáng xìng qì hòu	maritime climate
成不了气候	chéng bu liǎo qì hòu	won't get far; unlikely to be successful
古气候学	gǔ qì hòu xué	paleoclimatology
过时不候	guò shí bù hòu	being late is not acceptable (idiom)
气候变化	qì hòu biàn huà	climate change
全球气候	quán qiú qì hòu	global climate
大气候	dà qì hòu	atmosphere
气候学	qì hòu xué	climatology
小气候	xiǎo qì hòu	microclimate; fig. local situation
物候学	wù hòu xué	phenology
政治气候	zhèng zhì qì hòu	political climate
小时候	xiǎo shí hou	in one's childhood
大陆性气候	dà lù xìng qì hòu	continental climate
有的时候	yǒu de shí hòu	sometimes; at times
全天候	quán tiān hòu	all-weather; 24-hour
候风地动仪	hòu fēng dì dòng yí	the world's first seismograph invented by Zhang Heng 張衡\|张衡[Zhang1 Heng2] in 132