孽 meaning and stroke order
Bastard child; the consequence of a sin; evil
How to write 孽, stroke by stroke
19 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 孽
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- son born of a concubine
- disaster
- sin
- evil
- variant of 孽[nie4]
How 孽 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Child.
子 gives the meaning and 薛 hints at the sound.
Radical: 子 (son), shared by 30 characters on this site.
How to remember 孽
The bottom part is 子 (zǐ), a child, and the top is 薛 (xuē), which gives the sound. Picture a child sitting under a heavy 薛 roof of trouble: in old times a child born outside the proper family line was seen as the result of wrongdoing, which led to the meanings sin and evil.
Today 孽 (niè) rarely stands alone. It mostly appears in set words about sin and bad karma, such as 罪孽 (zuìniè) and 妖孽 (yāoniè), often in literary or dramatic language. Example: 这是他自己造的孽。(Zhè shì tā zìjǐ zào de niè.) He brought this trouble on himself.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 孽 with 蘖 (niè, a shoot from a stump), which has the same sound and the same 薛 top but 木 at the bottom instead of 子. Remember that sin and evil come with the child 子, not the tree 木.
Common words with 孽
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 罪孽 | zuìniè | sin; crime | |
| 妖孽 | yāoniè | evildoer |
Questions about 孽
How many strokes are in 孽?
孽 is written with 19 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 孽 mean?
孽 (niè) means bastard child; the consequence of a sin; evil. A common word with it is 罪孽 (zuìniè), meaning "sin; crime".
How do you pronounce 孽?
孽 is pronounced niè, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 孽?
The radical of 孽 is 子, which carries the idea of "son". Dictionaries list 孽 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 孽?
The traditional form of 孽 is 孼. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 孽 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
What does 造孽 (zàoniè) mean?
造孽 means to do evil or commit sins that will bring bad consequences, similar to creating bad karma. In everyday speech, especially in some dialects, people also say it to mean something is pitiful or a shame.
Is 妖孽 (yāoniè) always an insult?
Originally it means an evil person or a demonic omen. In modern internet slang it can be half joking, used for someone who is unusually attractive or talented in a strange way.