裳 meaning and stroke order
Skirt, petticoat; beautiful
How to write 裳, stroke by stroke
14 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 裳
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- lower garment
- skirts
- petticoats
- garments
- used in 衣裳[yi1 shang5]
How 裳 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Clothes.
衣 gives the meaning and 尚 hints at the sound.
Radical: 衣 (cloth), shared by 33 characters on this site.
How to remember 裳
裳 puts 尚 (shàng) on top of 衣 (yī, clothing). 衣 tells you it is a garment, and 尚 hints at the sound, so think of it as the clothing word that sounds like shang.
In everyday speech 裳 appears almost only in 衣裳 (yīshang), a colloquial word for clothes, where it takes a neutral tone. The reading cháng, meaning a skirt or lower garment, shows up mainly in classical texts and set phrases. Example: 这件衣裳很好看。(Zhè jiàn yīshang hěn hǎokàn.) This piece of clothing looks nice.
Common mistake: Learners often write 尝 (cháng, to taste) or 常 (cháng, often) by mistake, since all three share the same top part. Only 裳 has 衣 at the bottom, which matches its meaning of clothing.
Common words with 裳
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 衣裳 | yīshang | (coll.) clothes |
Questions about 裳
How many strokes are in 裳?
裳 is written with 14 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 裳 mean?
裳 (shang) means skirt, petticoat; beautiful. A common word with it is 衣裳 (yīshang), meaning "(coll.) clothes".
How do you pronounce 裳?
裳 is pronounced shang, in the neutral tone (short and light).
What is the radical of 裳?
The radical of 裳 is 衣, which carries the idea of "cloth". Dictionaries list 裳 under this radical.
What is the difference between 衣裳 and 衣服?
Both mean clothes. 衣服 (yīfu) is the standard everyday word, while 衣裳 (yīshang) sounds more colloquial or regional, and a little old-fashioned to some speakers.
When is 裳 read cháng instead of shang?
It is read cháng when it means a skirt or lower garment, mostly in classical Chinese, where 衣 was the upper garment and 裳 the lower one. In 衣裳 it is read with a neutral tone, shang.