由
yóu HSK2

cause

由 yóu
to let verb
to leave it to (someone); to let (someone do as they please); to be up to
[reason] noun
(bound form) cause; reason; source
by preposition
Used to introduce the person or group responsible for an action, meaning "by" or "it is up to... to..."

我是由两位母亲养大的。

wǒ shì yóu liǎng wèi mǔ​qīn yǎng dà de.

I was raised by two mothers.

这个游戏最好由四个人玩。

zhè​ge yóu​xì zuì​hǎo yóu sì gè​rén wán.

The game is best played by four people.

due to preposition
due to; because of; as a result of
from preposition
from; starting at a place or time

故事由恶梦开始。

gù​shi yóu è​mèng kāi​shǐ.

The story begins with a nightmare.

via nounpreposition
via; through; by way of; to pass through
to obey
to follow; to obey; to adhere to
surname
a Chinese surname
means
(literary) means; opportunity; way (to do something)

Cross-References

Has old variant

Same as

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
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)