How to Write 雠 (chóu) — Meaning “Enemy; rival; proofread”

Imagine two birds (雔) are arguing using words (讠) and become enemies — that scene spells 雠. Or think: to proofread, you need two texts (two birds) and careful speech (讠). The pinyin 'chóu' sounds like 'chow' as in 'enemy chow down', helping you remember the enemy meaning.

Write the left radical 讠 first (dot, then horizontal hook), then the right part 雔 which consists of two 隹 written left to right. Each 隹 has 8 strokes, so focus on keeping the two halves balanced and evenly sized. A common mistake is making the right side too narrow or uneven, so practice aligning the two birds.

雠 has the speech radical 讠 on the left, while 雔 is just two birds with no radical and is rarely used. 雕 has a different left part (周) and means 'to carve' or 'an eagle', so it is visually distinct. In meaning, 雠 relates to enmity or proofreading, while 雕 relates to carving or birds of prey.

雠 is not a common daily character in modern Chinese, but it appears in formal or literary terms like 校雠 (collation of ancient texts) and 报雠 (to take revenge, often written as 报仇). It is considered a classical character, especially valued in Chinese philology for the field of textual criticism.

Common words containing 雠 include: 雠怨 (chóu yuàn) — Enmity; grudge; 校雠 (xiào chóu) — Collation or proofreading of ancient texts; 报雠 (bào chóu) — to take revenge; to avenge.