How to Write 悠 (yōu) — Meaning “leisurely”

Imagine a person (亻) with a walking stick (攵) walking slowly beside a river (水 is hidden in 攸), with a heart (心) that is completely at peace. The whole picture spells 'leisurely' because the heart is not rushing—it is taking its time.

The top part 攸 consists of 亻 (person) on the left and 攵 (tap/strike) on the right, but note that the horizontal stroke in 攵 does not cross the vertical. Underneath, the 心 radical must be written with three dots and a curved bottom hook—do not make it look like three separate dots; the middle dot is the highest.

怎 (zěn, 'how') has the radical 心 below but the top part is 乍 (sudden), not 攸. 怒 (nù, 'anger') also has 心 below but uses 奴 (slave) above. 悠 always contains 攸 at the top, which looks like a person (亻) plus 攵, while 怎 and 怒 have different top components.

悠 frequently appears in words like 悠久 (long-standing) to describe history or tradition, and 悠闲 (relaxed) to describe a calm lifestyle. It also appears in the informal verb 忽悠 (to bamboozle), which playfully suggests 'swaying' someone's mind—a cultural note: 忽悠 is very common in northern Chinese dialects for joking or tricking.

Common words containing 悠 include: 悠久 (yōu jiǔ) — long-standing; 悠闲 (yōu xián) — relaxed; 忽悠 (hū yōu) — to bamboozle; to trick; to flicker.