首

Tap the pinyin to hear it

head; chief; first (occasion, thing etc); classifier for poems, songs etc

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Ideographic compound (会意字)

A deer's head 自 adorned with antlers 丷

Components 丷自

heads · Heisig RSH #71

horns + nose

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

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

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
石首市	Shí shǒu Shì	Shishou, a county-level city in Jingzhou City 荊州市\|荆州市[Jing1 zhou1 Shi4], Hubei
首尔特别市	Shǒu ěr Tè bié shì	Seoul Special Metropolitan City, official name of the capital of South Korea
国家元首	guó jiā yuán shǒu	head of state
首县	shǒu xiàn	principal county magistrate in imperial China
前首相	qián shǒu xiàng	former prime minister
首尔	Shǒu ěr	Seoul, capital of South Korea (Chinese name adopted in 2005 to replace 漢城\|汉城[Han4 cheng2])
自首	zì shǒu	to give oneself up; to surrender (to the authorities)
首家	shǒu jiā	first (hotel of its type, store of its type etc)
上首	shàng shǒu	seat of honor; first place
会首	huì shǒu	head of a society; sponsor of an organization
首发	shǒu fā	first issue; first public showing
面首	miàn shǒu	handsome male companion; gigolo
首长	shǒu zhǎng	senior official
群龙无首	qún lóng wú shǒu	lit. a thunder of dragons without a head; fig. a group lacking a leader
特首	tè shǒu	chief executive of Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong or Macao); abbr. for 特別行政區首席執行…
开首	kāi shǒu	beginning; start; opening; in the beginning; to start; to open
门首	mén shǒu	doorway; gate; entrance
低首下心	dī shǒu xià xīn	to be fawningly submissive (idiom)
石首	Shí shǒu	see 石首市[Shi2 shou3 Shi4]
首尾音	shǒu wěi yīn	onset and rime

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

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
首 sound part	shǒu	chief, head, leader
道	dào	method, way; path, road