Skip to content

姥

2 readings · tap one to hear it

grandma (maternal)

Make a writing worksheet

Old HSK
Level 5
Strokes
9
Radical
女 +6
Structure
Left–right 左右
Traditional
姥
Common rank
#3,261
Unicode
U+59E5

Sound it out + = · + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 姥 is formed

Ideographic compound (会意字)

An older 老 woman 女; 老 also provides the pronunciation

Components 女 老

How to remember it

maternal grandmother · Heisig RSH #2297

女 woman + 老 old man

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 姥

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

WordPinyinMeaning
刘姥姥进大观园 Liú lǎo lao jìn Dà guān yuán Granny Liu visits the Grand View gardens; (of a simple person) to be overwhelmed by new ex…
老姥 lǎo mǔ old lady; (old woman's self-reference) I, me
姥娘 lǎo niáng maternal grandmother (dialectal)
姥爷 lǎo ye (coll.) mother's father; maternal grandfather
姑姥姥 gū lǎo lao mother's father's sister (coll.); great aunt
姨姥姥 yí lǎo lao mother's mother's sister; great-aunt
姥鲨 lǎo shā basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)
姥姥 lǎo lao (coll.) mother's mother; maternal grandmother