留
Tap the pinyin to hear it
to leave (a message etc); to retain; to stay; to remain; to keep; to preserve
- HSK 3.0
- Level 2
- Old HSK
- Level 3
- Strokes
- 10
- Radical
- 田 +5
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 留
- Common rank
- #563
- Unicode
- U+7559
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 留
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 女大不中留 | when a girl is of age, she must be married off (idiom) | |
| 留心眼儿 | to be on the alert; to keep one's eyes open | |
| 国家留学基金管理委员会 | China Scholarship Council (CSC) | |
| 留学生 | student studying abroad; returned student; foreign student; international student | |
| 自留山 | hilly land allotted for private use | |
| 自留地 | private plot allocated to an individual on a collective farm | |
| 手下留情 | lit. start off leniently (idiom); please do not be too strict with me; Do not judge me too… | |
| 留一手 | to deliberately withhold essential knowledge or skills as strategic insurance (typically t… | |
| 王不留行 | cowherb (Vaccaria segetalis); cowherb seeds (used in TCM) | |
| 留里克 | Rurik (c. 830-879), Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people | |
| 保留区 | reservation (for an ethnic minority) | |
| 话到嘴边留三分 | A still tongue makes a wise head. (idiom) | |
| 留声机 | gramophone; phonograph | |
| 留后路 | to leave oneself a way out; to provide oneself with a fallback | |
| 留言本 | guestbook | |
| 留子 | (slang) international student; student studying abroad | |
| 留学 | to study abroad | |
| 留心 | to be careful; to pay attention to | |
| 留尾巴 | to leave loose ends; to leave matters unresolved | |
| 留海 | variant of 劉海|刘海[liu2 hai3] |
Sound family
These characters use 留 as their sound component — compare how they read.