How to Write 暑 (shǔ) — Meaning “heat; summer heat”

Picture the sun (日) shining so strongly that a person (者) must go on 暑假 (summer vacation) to escape. The combination of sun and person reminds you that 暑 means heat that affects everyone.

Write the top 日 small and narrow, then the bottom 者 wider. Start with 日, then for 者 write a horizontal stroke, then a vertical stroke, followed by a dot on the left and a short horizontal. A common mistake is making the 日 too large or mixing up the strokes in 者.

暑 is used for heat and summer (e.g., 暑假), while 㬎 is a rare character meaning bright sunlight and 晁 is mainly a surname. Visually, 暑 has 者 below, 晁 has 兆 below, and 㬎 has a different bottom component that is not commonly seen.

暑 appears in common words like 暑假 (summer vacation), 避暑 (escaping the heat), and 中暑 (heatstroke). Culturally, Chinese schools have a long 暑假 in July and August, and many families go to mountain or seaside resorts to 避暑.

Common words containing 暑 include: 暑假 (shǔ jià) — summer vacation; 避暑 (bì shǔ) — to escape the summer heat / to go to a summer resort; 中暑 (zhòng shǔ) — Heatstroke.