How to Write 丘 (qiū) — Meaning “hill; mound”

Picture a small hill with a path: the top horizontal line is the flat peak, the left-falling stroke is the slope coming down, and the two vertical lines are the sides. You can also remember that 丘 looks like a person (亻) sitting on a bump, with an extra horizontal line at the bottom for the ground.

The stroke order is: left-falling (丿) first, then vertical (丨), horizontal (一), vertical (丨), and finally horizontal (一). Keep the left-falling stroke short and angled, and make the two horizontal strokes parallel, with the bottom one slightly longer. A common mistake is writing the left-falling too long or mixing the order of the vertical strokes.

丘 has 5 strokes and means 'hill', while 万 (wàn) has 3 strokes and means 'ten thousand', and 丈 (zhàng) has 3 strokes and is a unit of length. Visually, 丘 has two vertical lines and two horizontals; 万 has a hook at the end; 丈 has a larger left-falling and a right-falling stroke. Their pronunciations and meanings are completely different.

丘 is used in words like 山丘 (shān qiū, hill) and 丘陵 (qiū líng, hills or rolling terrain). It also appears in the name 孔丘 (Kǒng Qiū), the given name of Confucius, giving it cultural importance. Additionally, 丘 is a common surname in Chinese and appears in many place names.

Common words containing 丘 include: 山丘 (shān qiū) — Hill; 丘陵 (qiū líng) — Hills; 孔丘 (kǒng qiū) — Kong Qiu (the given name of Confucius).