苍 meaning and stroke order
Dark blue; deep green; old, hoary
How to write 苍, 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 苍
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- dark blue
- deep green
- ash-gray
How 苍 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Grass.
艹 gives the meaning and 仓 hints at the sound.
Radical: 艹 (grass), shared by 421 characters on this site.
How to remember 苍
The grass radical 艹 sits on top of 仓 (cāng, granary), which gives the sound. Picture a granary covered in deep green grass, fading to gray with age, and you have 苍: dark green, blue, or hoary.
苍 rarely stands alone in modern speech. It appears in set words like 苍白 (cāngbái, pale), 苍蝇 (cāngying, housefly), and the literary 苍天 (cāngtiān, the sky, Heaven). Example: 她的脸色很苍白。(Tā de liǎnsè hěn cāngbái.) Her face is very pale.
Common mistake: Learners often write 仓 (cāng, granary) and forget the grass radical, or confuse 苍 with 沧 (cāng, as in 沧桑), which has the water radical. In 苍蝇 the second syllable is usually neutral tone, cāngying, not cāngyíng.
Common words with 苍
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
苍 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 苍
How many strokes are in 苍?
苍 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 苍 mean?
苍 (cāng) means dark blue; deep green; old, hoary. A common word with it is 苍蝇 (cāngying), meaning "housefly".
How do you pronounce 苍?
苍 is pronounced cāng, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 苍?
The radical of 苍 is 艹, which carries the idea of "grass". Dictionaries list 苍 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 苍?
The traditional form of 苍 is 蒼. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 苍 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 苍 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 苍 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Does 苍 mean blue or green?
It can mean either, plus ash gray. It describes a deep, dark color of sky, sea, or forest, so context decides. 苍天 points to the blue sky, while 苍翠 (cāngcuì) means lush dark green.
Why does 苍 also mean old?
The grayish shade of 苍 is linked to graying hair and age. That is why words like 苍老 (cānglǎo, aged, old looking) use it to describe people who look worn by time.