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The character 牛 (niú): ox

In a green meadow under a blue sky of white clouds, edged by a low hedge at the horizon, a fawn ox with pale cream horns stands in profile on the left, its head turned to the right. On the right, planted in the grass, the character 牛 in dark brown: a short oblique hooked at the top of the stem and meeting the left end of a short bar, a longer bar below, and the stem running down to the ground.
Pronunciation
niú
Strokes
4
Radical
牛

What it means

ox; cow; bull; CL:條|条[tiao2],頭|头[tou2]; newton (abbr. for 牛頓|牛顿[niu2 dun4]); (slang) awesome

Where its shape comes from

An ox head seen face on, not the whole animal: Xu Shen says that the graph pictures "the horns, the head, the back and the tail". On the engraved bones the two horns answer each other on either side of a muzzle. It is the counterpart of 羊 (yáng), the sheep, which comes further along in this course: two heads, and only the horns tell them apart.

Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.

A way to remember it

Two bars across an upright shaft, with a slanting stroke hooked on at the very top. That slant is not merely parked alongside: it STARTS from the shaft and runs down to meet the left end of the first bar.

This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.

Words it appears in

Writing it

See the stroke order of 牛, animated stroke by stroke.

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