归

Tap the pinyin to hear it

to return; to go back to; to give back to; (of a responsibility) to be taken care of by; to belong to; to gather together; (used between two identical verbs) despite; to marry (of a woman) (old); division on the abacus with a one-digit divisor

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HSK 3.0: Level 4
Old HSK: Level 5
Strokes: 5
Radical: 彐 +2
Structure: Left–right 左右
Traditional: 归
Common rank: #589
Unicode: U+5F52

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 归 is formed

Ideographic compound (会意字)

Simplified form of 歸; a wife 帚 returning home; 追 provides the pronunciation

Components 彐 ? unknown part

How to remember it

come back · Heisig RSH #2196

saber + broom

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 归

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

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
无家可归	wú jiā kě guī	(idiom) homeless
一命归天	yī mìng guī tiān	see 一命嗚呼\|一命呜呼[yi1 ming4 wu1 hu1]
线性回归	xiàn xìng huí guī	linear regression (statistics)
一命归西	yī mìng guī xī	see 一命嗚呼\|一命呜呼[yi1 ming4 wu1 hu1]
物归原主	wù guī yuán zhǔ	(idiom) to return sth to its rightful owner
血本无归	xuè běn wú guī	(idiom) to lose everything one invested; to lose one's shirt
不归路	bù guī lù	road to ruin; course of action from which there is no turning back
空手而归	kōng shǒu ér guī	to return empty-handed; to fail to win anything
南回归线	Nán huí guī xiàn	Tropic of Capricorn
北回归线	Běi huí guī xiàn	Tropic of Cancer
言归正传	yán guī zhèng zhuàn	to return to the topic (idiom); to get back to the main point
回归线	huí guī xiàn	tropic; one of the two latitude lines, Tropic of Capricorn or Tropic of Cancer
归国	guī guó	to go home (to one's native country); to return from abroad
归心	guī xīn	converted to (religion)
归纳法	guī nà fǎ	induction (method of deduction in logic)
回归年	huí guī nián	the solar year; the year defined as the period between successive equinoxes
归天	guī tiān	to die
海归	hǎi guī	sb who has come back to China after gaining overseas experience (a pun on 海龜\|海龟[hai3 gui1]…
归化	Guī huà	old name for district of Hohhot city 呼和浩特[Hu1 he2 hao4 te4], Inner Mongolia
归化	guī huà	naturalization

Sound family

These characters use 归 as their sound component — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
归 sound part	guī	to return, to go back; to return to, to revert
岿	kuī	grand, stately; secure, lasting