to graduate; graduation
HSK level
毕业 is written with 11 strokes (毕: 6, 业: 5). The animation replays automatically.
毕业 (bìyè) means 'to graduate' — to finish a full course of study at a school, college, or university.
It functions as a separable verb (毕 'to finish' + 业 'studies'), which means grammatical elements slot inside it: 毕了业 (have graduated), 毕不了业 (can't graduate). This separability is the main hurdle for English speakers, who treat 'graduate' as one word. To say where you graduated from, use 从…毕业 (从大学毕业 = graduate from university), not a direct object — you cannot say 毕业大学.
As a noun it appears in compounds like 毕业生 (graduate) and 毕业典礼 (graduation ceremony). Its natural opposite is 入学 (rùxué), 'to start / enroll in school.'
Note: Neutral and universal for finishing a course of study. It is a separable verb.
Character by character
Memory hook: 'Finish' (毕) your 'studies' (业) — that's graduating.
我明年就要大学毕业了。
Wǒ míngnián jiù yào dàxué bìyè le.
I'm going to graduate from university next year.
spoken
他从北京大学毕业。
Tā cóng Běijīng Dàxué bìyè.
He graduated from Peking University.
neutral
毕业以后你想做什么？
Bìyè yǐhòu nǐ xiǎng zuò shénme?
What do you want to do after graduation?
spoken
今年的毕业生比去年多。
Jīnnián de bìyèshēng bǐ qùnián duō.
There are more graduates this year than last year.
written
作业 means 'homework / assignment.' It shares 业 with 毕业 but is what you do during school, not finishing it. 毕业 = graduate; 作业 = homework.
专业 means 'major / specialty / professional.' Also shares 业, but refers to a field of study, not the act of finishing. 我的专业是历史 (my major is history) vs 我毕业了 (I graduated).
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