油

Tap the pinyin to hear it

oil; fat; grease; petroleum; to apply tung oil, paint or varnish; oily; greasy; glib; cunning

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Phono-semantic compound (形声字)

氵 meaning “water” + 由 sound ( yóu )

Components 氵由

oil · Heisig RSH #915

水 water + sprout

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

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

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
中海油	zhōng hǎi yóu	China National Offshore Oil Corporation
石油化学	shí yóu huà xué	petrochemistry
开大油门	kāi dà yóu mén	to open the throttle; to accelerate; to let her rip
动物油	dòng wù yóu	animal fat
加大油门	jiā dà yóu mén	to accelerate; to step on the gas
三克油	sān kè yóu	thank you (humorous phonetic rendering of the English phrase)
老油子	lǎo yóu zi	(coll.) wily old fox; crafty fellow
油子	yóu zi	dense and sticky substance; (dialect) wily old fox
大油	dà yóu	lard
油水	yóu shuǐ	grease; profit; ill-gotten gains
化油器	huà yóu qì	carburetor
中油	Zhōng yóu	CPC Corporation, a state-owned petroleum company in Taiwan (abbr. for 台灣中油\|台湾中油[Tai2 wan1 …
合成石油	hé chéng shí yóu	synthetic oil
色拉油	sè lā yóu	salad oil
江油市	Jiāng yóu Shì	Jiangyou, a county-level city in Mianyang City 綿陽市\|绵阳市[Mian2 yang2 Shi4], Sichuan
火上加油	huǒ shàng jiā yóu	to add oil to the fire (idiom); fig. to aggravate a situation; to enrage people and make m…
机油	jī yóu	engine oil
油花	yóu huā	grease or fat blobs at the surface of a liquid; tricky and dissolute
油气	yóu qì	oil and gas
油加利	yóu jiā lì	variant of 尤加利[you2 jia1 li4]

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

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
由 sound part	yóu	cause, reason; from
抽	chōu	to draw out, to pull out; to sprout
轴	zhóu	axle, pivot, shaft; axis
邮	yóu	mail; post office
袖	xiù	sleeve
宙	zhòu	space, time, space-time
鼬	yòu	weasel, mustela itatis
铀	yóu	uranium
釉	yòu	enamel, glaze
岫	xiù	mountain peak; cave, cavern
柚	yòu	grapefruit, pomelo
蚰	yóu	millipede
妯	zhóu	sister-in law
舳	zhú	the stern of a ship