What 俯 means
It means to bend or look downward. 俯身 describes leaning over; 俯视 means looking downward, and 俯瞰 means looking down from a height.
The character was formed for that action: a bronze-inscription form combines a bent-person element for meaning with 府 as a sound cue; the modern form keeps a person component on the left. Japanese also uses 俯 for bending forward or lying face-down.
Does 俯 mean looking down or bowing?
Both readings are real; the compound decides. In later usage, the lowered posture also carries social meanings: 俯首听命 can suggest obedience, and formal 俯就 can mean to condescend to accept or accommodate.
Read the full compound before assigning a social tone. Alone, 俯 is a written character, not a message with one fixed emotional reading.
Neutral for downward movement or viewpoint; formal and hierarchical in compounds about deference.
Don't read every 俯 as submission; the compound sets the tone.
Who writes 俯
Loading…
Related characters
3
Combination ideas
3Questions people ask
1Why does 俯 look different in different fonts?
The same Han character can have different shapes in different fonts and locales; Unicode identifies the character, not one mandatory drawing.
More like this
10
How to type or find 俯
- Search it as
- 俯 meaning · fǔ · fu3 · 俯身 · 俯视 · 俯瞰 · 俯首 · 俯仰
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
俯\4FEFCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.