餒 meaning and stroke order
Famished, hungry, starving
How to write 餒, stroke by stroke
15 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 餒
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) hungry; starving
- (bound form) dispirited
- (literary) (of fish) putrid
How 餒 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Food.
飠 gives the meaning and 妥 hints at the sound.
Radical: 飠 (food), shared by 44 characters on this site.
How to remember 餒
The food radical 飠 on the left tells you this character is about eating, or the lack of it. The right side 妥 (tuǒ) gives a sound hint, so picture someone who wants food to make everything 妥 (settled), but their stomach is empty.
Today 餒 (simplified 馁) rarely means hungry on its own. It mostly appears in 气馁 (qìněi), meaning to lose heart. Example: 别气馁，再试一次。(Bié qìněi, zài shì yí cì.) Don't be discouraged, try again.
Common mistake: Learners often read it as tuǒ because of the 妥 component, but the sound is něi, third tone. Also, do not use 馁 alone to say you are hungry in speech. Say 饿 (è) instead.
Common words with 餒
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 氣餒 | qìněi | to be discouraged | HSK 7-9 |
Questions about 餒
How many strokes are in 餒?
餒 is written with 15 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 餒 mean?
餒 (něi) means famished, hungry, starving. A common word with it is 气馁 (qìněi), meaning "to be discouraged".
How do you pronounce 餒?
餒 is pronounced něi, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 餒?
The radical of 餒 is 飠, which carries the idea of "food". Dictionaries list 餒 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 餒?
餒 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 馁, used in mainland China and Singapore.
What is the difference between 馁 and 饿?
饿 (è) is the everyday word for hungry, as in 我饿了 (wǒ è le). 馁 is a bound or literary form. In modern use it mostly carries the figurative sense of being dispirited.
Are there other common expressions with 馁 besides 气馁?
You may see 胜不骄，败不馁 (shèng bù jiāo, bài bù něi), meaning not arrogant in victory, not discouraged in defeat. It uses the same dispirited sense as 气馁.