生
to grow; to give birth; to produce; to be born; to arise; to occur; to light (a fire); to live; to be alive; life; raw; uncooked; unprocessed; unfamiliar; strange; (bound form) student; person engaged in a field; (bound form) male role in traditional opera; (bound form) life; lifetime; (bound form) means of livelihood; (bound form) very; intensely (as in 生疼[sheng1 teng2]); (bound form) in a forced manner (as in 生拉硬拽[sheng1 la1 ying4 zhuai4])
5 strokes
Dict coverage rank #16 U+751F
How 生 is formed
Ideographic compound (会意字)
A shoot 屮 growing in the soil 土
How to remember it
life · Heisig RSH #1218
a drop of + grow up — as a component also called: cell
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Characters built with 生 as their sound component
These characters all use 生 (shēng) as their phonetic component — compare how they read:
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 生 sound component | shēng | life, lifetime; birth; growth |
| 性 | xìng | sex, nature, character; suffix converting a verb to an adjective |
| 星 | xīng | star, planet; a point of light |
| 胜 | shèng | victory; to excel, to truimph |
| 姓 | xìng | name, family name, surname; clan, people |
| 牲 | shēng | sacrificial animal; domestic animal |
| 笙 | shēng | free reed mouth organ |
| 甥 | shēng | niece, nephew; sister's child |
| 旌 | jīng | to signal; a flag adorned with feathers |
| 眚 | shěng | cataract; fault, error, crime |
Words containing 生
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 生子 | shēng zǐ | to give birth to a child or children |
| 人生 | rén shēng | life (one's time on earth) |
| 大生 | dà shēng | (Tw) university student (abbr. for 大學生|大学生[da4 xue2 sheng1]) |
| 生人 | shēng rén | stranger; living person; to give birth; to be born (in a certain time or place) |
| 大学生 | dà xué shēng | university student; college student |
| 一生 | yī shēng | all one's life; throughout one's life |
| 大中学生 | dà zhōng xué sheng | university and high school students |
| 水生 | shuǐ shēng | aquatic (plant, animal) |
| 生水 | shēng shuǐ | unboiled water |
| 中学生 | zhōng xué shēng | middle-school student; high school student |
| 学生 | xué sheng | student; schoolchild |
| 小学生 | xiǎo xué shēng | primary school student; schoolchild; CL:個|个[ge4],名[ming2]; (fig.) beginner |
| 天生 | tiān shēng | nature; disposition; innate; natural |
| 无中生有 | wú zhōng shēng yǒu | to create something from nothing (idiom) |
| 生性 | shēng xìng | natural disposition |
| 生化学 | shēng huà xué | biochemistry |
| 学生会 | xué sheng huì | student union |
| 高中学生 | gāo zhōng xué shēng | student of a senior high school |
| 生动 | shēng dòng | (of descriptions, writing etc) vivid; lively |
| 生机 | shēng jī | opportunity to live; hope of success; vigor; vitality |