肠 meaning and stroke order
Intestines
How to write 肠, stroke by stroke
7 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 肠
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- intestines
- old variant of 腸|肠[chang2]
How 肠 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Flesh.
⺼ gives the meaning and 昜 hints at the sound.
Radical: ⺼ (meat), shared by 176 characters on this site.
How to remember 肠
肠 (cháng) is a pictophonetic character: the flesh radical ⺼ on the left tells you it is a body part, and 昜 on the right gives the sound. Picture a long coil of flesh inside the body, and the right side 昜 also hints at the sound of 长 (cháng, long), like the long intestines.
肠 appears mostly in compounds rather than alone. It covers body words like 肠胃 (chángwèi, digestive system) and food words like 香肠 (xiāngcháng, sausage), and it can also mean feelings or heart, as in 心肠 (xīncháng). Example: 我爱吃香肠。(Wǒ ài chī xiāngcháng.) I love eating sausage.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 肠 with 场 (chǎng, field or place), which shares the same right side but uses the earth radical 土 and has a third tone. Remember that 肠 has the flesh radical ⺼ and a second tone.
Common words with 肠
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 香肠 | xiāngcháng | sausage | HSK 5 |
| 心肠 | xīncháng | heart; intention | HSK 7-9 |
| 腊肠 | làcháng | sausage | |
| 肠子 | chángzi | intestines | |
| 肠胃 | chángwèi | stomach and intestine; digestive system | |
| 铁石心肠 | tiěshíxīncháng | to have a heart of stone; hard-hearted | |
| 直肠 | zhícháng | rectum (anatomy) | |
| 肠道 | chángdào | intestines; gut | |
| 饥肠辘辘 | jīchánglùlù | (idiom) stomach rumbling with hunger; very hungry | |
| 灌肠 | guàncháng | enema; to give an enema |
肠 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 肠
How many strokes are in 肠?
肠 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 肠 mean?
肠 (cháng) means intestines. A common word with it is 香肠 (xiāngcháng), meaning "sausage".
How do you pronounce 肠?
肠 is pronounced cháng, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 肠?
The radical of 肠 is ⺼, which carries the idea of "meat". Dictionaries list 肠 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 肠?
The traditional form of 肠 is 腸 and 膓. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 肠 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 肠 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 肠 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why does 肠 mean emotions as well as intestines?
In Chinese, inner organs are often used to talk about feelings, much like English uses heart. Words like 心肠 (xīncháng, heart or intention) and 铁石心肠 (tiěshíxīncháng, hard-hearted) show this meaning.
What is the difference between 香肠 and 腊肠?
香肠 (xiāngcháng) is the general word for sausage. 腊肠 (làcháng) usually means Chinese cured sausage, often dried and slightly sweet, common in Cantonese cooking.