服 fú — clothes; dress; garment; submit; take (medicine)
这件衣服很舒服。Zhè jiàn yī fu hěn shū fu.This piece of clothing is very comfortable.
Common words: 衣服 (yī fu)、服务 (fú wù)、舒服 (shū fu)
Meaning Index
Chinese characters meaning "submit"
Learn Chinese characters with the meaning "submit", including 服 (fú), 伏 (fú). Study pinyin, English meanings, traditional forms, common words, and examples.
How to Study This Meaning Group
The English word "submit" covers 2 different Chinese characters — 服 (fú), 伏 (fú) — and each is its own word with its own feel. These 2 characters happen to share the reading fú, so lean on the words and written forms to tell them apart. The example sentences further down show how 服 and the others are actually used, so you learn them in context rather than as a single translation.
- 服 fúclothes; dress; garment; submit; take (medicine)Useful words: 衣服, 服务
- 伏 fúconceal (ambush); prostrate; submitUseful words: 起伏, 埋伏
Common words for these 2 "submit" characters
Anchor each of these 2 characters in a word you can picture — start with 服 (fú) — so "submit" turns into concrete usage instead of a one-to-one translation.
衣服yī fuclothes服务fú wùto serve; service舒服shū fucomfortable; feeling well起伏qǐ fúto move up and down; to undulate; ups and downs埋伏mái fúto ambush; to lie in wait for; to lie low; ambush此起彼伏cǐ qǐ bǐ fúup here, down there (idiom); to rise and fall in succession; no sooner one subsides, the next arises; repeating continuously
See each character in a sentence
Each character below is shown in a short example sentence with pinyin and an English translation — the quickest way to feel the difference between the 2 ways to say "submit".
伏 fú — conceal (ambush); prostrate; submit
猫伏在地上，准备捉老鼠。Māo fú zài dì shàng, zhǔn bèi zhuō lǎo shǔ.The cat crouched on the ground, ready to catch the mouse.
Common words: 起伏 (qǐ fú)、埋伏 (mái fú)、此起彼伏 (cǐ qǐ bǐ fú)
All 2 characters
Open 服、伏 or any character below to hear it read aloud and see it used in an example sentence.