餓 meaning and stroke order
Hungry; greedy
How to write 餓, 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 餓
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- hungry
- to starve (sb)
How 餓 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. To want 我 food 飠; 我 also provides the pronunciation.
Radical: 飠 (food), shared by 44 characters on this site.
How to remember 餓
On the left is the food radical 飠, and on the right is 我 (wǒ, I or me). Picture yourself, 我, reaching for food 飠 because you are hungry, and let 我 remind you of the sound too.
餓 (simplified 饿) is the everyday word for feeling hungry, usually with 了 or 很. It also appears in words like 挨饿 (ái'è, to go hungry) and 饿死 (èsǐ), which people often use to exaggerate. Example: 我饿死了。(Wǒ è sǐ le.) I'm starving.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes say 我是饿 (wǒ shì è) on the model of English "I am hungry." Adjectives in Chinese do not take 是, so say 我饿了 (wǒ è le) or 我很饿 (wǒ hěn è). Also do not confuse 餓 with 餵 (wèi, to feed), which has the same food radical on the left.
Common words with 餓
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
Questions about 餓
How many strokes are in 餓?
餓 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 餓 mean?
餓 (è) means hungry; greedy. A common word with it is 饥饿 (jī'è), meaning "hunger; starvation".
How do you pronounce 餓?
餓 is pronounced è, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 餓?
The radical of 餓 is 飠, which carries the idea of "food". Dictionaries list 餓 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 餓?
餓 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 饿, used in mainland China and Singapore.
What is the difference between 饿 and 饥 in Chinese?
饿 (è) is the normal spoken word for feeling hungry. 饥 (jī) is more formal or literary and mostly appears in compounds like 饥饿 (jī'è, hunger) or 饥荒 (jīhuāng, famine). You would say 我饿了, not 我饥了.
Can 饿 be used as a verb meaning to make someone go hungry?
Yes. 饿 can mean to starve someone or to let them go hungry. For example, 别饿着孩子 (bié èzhe háizi) means "don't let the child go hungry."