wò shǒu
to shake hands
Practice writing with stroke order guidance, audio pronunciation, and interactive exercises in our mobile app.
Step-by-step stroke order animations
Native speaker audio pronunciation
Interactive writing recognition
我们握手言和吧。
wǒmen wòshǒu yánhé ba.
Let's shake hands and make peace.
他主动跟我握手以表示欢迎。
tā zhǔ dònɡ ɡēn wǒ wò shǒu yǐ biǎo shì huān yínɡ .
He offered to shake my hand as a sign of welcome.
我们握手告别。
wǒmen wòshǒu gàobié.
We shook hands and said goodbye.
松手 (sōng shǒu)
let go
放手 (fàng shǒu)
let go
The Chinese word 握手 (wòshǒu) for "handshake" is a compound of two characters: 握 (wò), meaning "to grasp" or "to hold," and 手 (shǒu), meaning "hand." The word 握手 literally means "to grasp hands," and it is used to refer to the act of two people shaking hands as a greeting or a sign of agreement.The character 握 (wò) is composed of two parts: the radical 扌 (shǒu), which indicates that the character is related to the hand, and the phonetic component 握 (wò), which gives the character its pronunciation. The character 手 (shǒu) is a pictograph that depicts a hand.The word 握手 (wòshǒu) is first recorded in the Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, which was compiled in the 2nd century AD. The dictionary defines 握手 as "to hold hands," and it gives the example of two people shaking hands as a greeting.The word 握手 is commonly used in modern Chinese to refer to the act of shaking hands. It is also used in a figurative sense to refer to cooperation or agreement between two people or groups. For example, the phrase 握手言和 (wòshǒu yánhé) means "to shake hands and make peace."