元首

元首 yuánshǒu

Head of state

元首 in a sentence HSK 6 yuanshou

What 元首 means

  1. Head of state

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 元首 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 元首 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

元首 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

元
yuán
First (chief - coin - fundamental)
首
shǒu
Head (leader - chief - first - mw for poems-songs-music)

How to write 元首

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 元首 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

元首 in a sentence

两国元首举行了会谈。
Liǎng guó yuánshǒu jǔxíng le huìtán.
The heads of the two states held talks.
元首在电视上发表了讲话。
Yuánshǒu zài diànshì shang fābiǎo le jiǎnghuà.
The head of state gave a televised address.

Every sentence on this site that uses 元首 is collected on the 元首 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 元首

What does 元首 mean in English?

元首 is pronounced yuánshǒu and means Head of state.

How do you pronounce 元首?

元首 is yuánshǒu in pinyin — written yuanshou without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 元首?

元首 is written with 2 characters: 元 (yuán) First (chief - coin - fundamental), 首 (shǒu) Head (leader - chief - first - mw for poems-songs-music). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 元首 an HSK word?

Yes — 元首 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

Keep going

Translate a whole sentence containing 元首 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

Browse the dictionary

Every word on this site links to its entry — tap any word in a graded reader, a translation result or an HSK list to land on a page like this one.

Dictionary index