父
Tap the pinyin to hear it
(bound form) father; (bound form) male relative of father's generation (as in 伯父[bo2 fu4]); (computing) (bound form) parent-
- HSK 3.0
- Level 3
- Old HSK
- Level 4
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 父 itself
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 父
- Common rank
- #913
- Unicode
- U+7236
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How to remember it
father · Heisig RSH #1043
a drop of
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 父
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 一日为师，终身为父 | (idiom) teacher for one day, father forever; students should have deep respect and lifelon… | |
| 师父领进门，修行在个人 | the master leads you to the door, the rest is up to you; you can lead a horse to water but… | |
| 无颜见江东父老 | (idiom) to be unable to return to one's hometown due to the shame of failure (originally r… | |
| 生父母 | biological parents; natural parents | |
| 有其父必有其子 | like father, like son (idiom) | |
| 因父之名 | in the Name of the Father (in Christian worship) | |
| 同母异父 | (of a half-sibling) having the same mother but different father | |
| 同父异母 | (of a half-sibling) having the same father but different mother | |
| 义父母 | adoptive parents | |
| 父权制 | patriarchy | |
| 父子 | father and son | |
| 人父 | father (as a social role) | |
| 国父 | father or founder of a nation; Father of the Republic (Sun Yat-sen) | |
| 造父变星 | (astronomy) Cepheid variable star | |
| 生父 | biological father | |
| 天父 | Heavenly Father | |
| 家父 | (polite) my father | |
| 子承父业 | (idiom) (of a son) to carry on one's father's business or profession | |
| 衣食父母 | the people one depends upon for one's livelihood; one's bread and butter | |
| 虎父无犬子 | lit. father a lion, son cannot be a dog (honorific); With a distinguished father such as y… |
Sound family
These characters use 父 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 父 sound part | father, dad | |
| 斧 | axe, hatchet; to chop, to hew | |
| 釜 | cauldron, kettle, pot |