由
yóu HSK2

cause

由 yóu
by preposition
it is for someone to do something; expresses agency or responsibility

今天的晚餐由我负责。

jīn​tiān de wǎn​cān yóu wǒ fù​zé.

I'm responsible for dinner today.

because of preposition
due to; because of

这场事故是由疏忽造成的。

zhè cháng shì​gù shì yóu shū​hu zào​chéng de.

The accident was caused by negligence.

from preposition
starting from; via; through

游行队伍由天安门出发。

yóu​xíng duì​wǔ yóu Tiān'ān​mén chū​fā.

The parade started from Tiananmen.

follow verb
to follow; to allow someone to have their way

凡事不能全由着他。

fán shì bù néng quán yóu zhe tā.

He can't have his own way in everything.

Frequency
Character
Written text
136th most common 1510.0 per million
Movie subtitles
437th most common 335.9 per million appears in 79% of films
Word
Movie subtitles
172.9 per million appears in 48% of films
Written text
682.5 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 4
HSK 3.0
Level 2
Strokes
5
Unicode
U+7531

Sources
Definitions
CC-CEDICT
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)