艮 meaning and stroke order
Blunt; tough, chewy
How to write 艮, stroke by stroke
6 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Meaning of 艮
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- blunt
- tough
- chewy
- one of the Eight Trigrams 八卦[ba1 gua4], symbolizing mountain
- ☶
- ancient Chinese compass point: 45° (northeast)
How to remember 艮
艮 looks like 良 (liáng, good) with the top dot missing. Think of it as food that lost its good part, so what is left is tough and chewy, hard to bite through.
In the third tone, 艮 (gěn) is a colloquial northern word for food that is tough or chewy, or for speech and manner that is blunt and stiff. In the fourth tone, 艮 (gèn) names one of the Eight Trigrams, symbolizing mountain. Example: 这个馒头太艮了。(Zhège mántou tài gěn le.) This steamed bun is too chewy.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 艮 with 良 (liáng). 艮 has no dot on top, while 良 does. Also remember the tone shift: gěn for tough or blunt, gèn for the trigram.
Characters that contain 艮
Learning 艮 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 艮
How many strokes are in 艮?
艮 is written with 6 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 艮 mean?
艮 (gěn) means blunt; tough, chewy.
How do you pronounce 艮?
艮 is pronounced gěn, in the third tone (dipping).
Why does 艮 appear inside so many other characters?
艮 is a common component in characters like 很 (hěn), 根 (gēn), 跟 (gēn), and 眼 (yǎn). In many of them it hints at the sound, which is why so many share an -en ending.
Is 艮 common in everyday speech?
On its own it is not very common and sounds regional, mostly northern colloquial. You will meet it far more often as a part of other characters, and gèn shows up in texts about the Yijing or fengshui.