臟 meaning and stroke order
Organs, viscera; dirty, filthy
How to write 臟, stroke by stroke
22 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 臟
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- viscera
- (anatomy) organ
How 臟 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Flesh.
⺼ gives the meaning and 藏 hints at the sound.
Radical: ⺼ (meat), shared by 176 characters on this site.
How to remember 臟
The flesh radical ⺼ on the left says this is about the body, and 藏 (cáng, to hide) on the right gives the sound. Think of organs as the flesh parts hidden away inside you.
臟 (zàng) is the traditional form used for internal organs, and it appears mostly in compound words like 心臟 (xīnzàng, heart) and 肝臟 (gānzàng, liver). Example: 他的心臟不太好。(Tā de xīnzàng bú tài hǎo.) His heart is not very healthy.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 臟 (zàng, organ) with 髒 (zāng, dirty). In traditional Chinese they are written differently: 臟 has the flesh radical ⺼, while 髒 has the bone radical 骨, even though both simplify to 脏.
Common words with 臟
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
Questions about 臟
How many strokes are in 臟?
臟 is written with 22 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 臟 mean?
臟 (zàng) means organs, viscera; dirty, filthy. A common word with it is 心脏 (xīnzàng), meaning "heart".
How do you pronounce 臟?
臟 is pronounced zàng, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 臟?
The radical of 臟 is ⺼, which carries the idea of "meat". Dictionaries list 臟 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 臟?
臟 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 脏, used in mainland China and Singapore.
Why does 脏 mean both organ and dirty in simplified Chinese?
Simplified Chinese merged two traditional characters into 脏. As zàng it replaces 臟 (organ), and as zāng it replaces 髒 (dirty), so the tone tells you which meaning is intended.
How is 臟 related to 藏?
藏 is the sound component and is also read zàng when it means a storehouse. Older medical texts sometimes wrote organs as 藏, picturing them as places where the body stores its essence.