What 自由 means
- Freedom (free - liberty)
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 自由 will read it the same way this page does.
Recognise a piece of 自由 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
How to write 自由
Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.
Practise 自由 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.
自由 in a sentence
Every sentence on this site that uses 自由 is collected on the 自由 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.
Questions about 自由
What does 自由 mean in English?
自由 is pronounced zìyóu and means Freedom (free - liberty).
How do you pronounce 自由?
自由 is zìyóu in pinyin — written ziyou without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.
What are the characters in 自由?
自由 is written with 2 characters: 自 (zì) Oneself (certainly - from), 由 (yóu) By (from - follow - cause - due to - give in to - go through). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.
Is 自由 an HSK word?
Yes — 自由 is on the official HSK 5 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 5 page.
Studied around the same time
Keep going
Translate a whole sentence containing 自由 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 5, 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