饿 meaning and stroke order
Hungry; to starve (sb)
How to write 饿, stroke by stroke
10 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 饿
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- hungry
- to starve (sb)
How 饿 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. To want 我 food 饣; 我 also provides the pronunciation.
Radical: 饣 (food), shared by 43 characters on this site.
How to remember 饿
The left side 饣 means food, and the right side 我 (wǒ) means me. When I want food, I am hungry, so 饿 (è) is "me plus food." 我 also hints at the sound.
饿 is used as an adjective for being hungry, often with 了 or 很. It can also mean to make someone go hungry, as in 别饿着孩子 (don't let the child go hungry). Example: 我饿了。(Wǒ è le.) I'm hungry.
Common mistake: Learners often write the right side as 找 (zhǎo) or 戈 instead of 我. Check for the full 我 with its extra stroke on the left. Also, 饿 is fourth tone è, not the second tone é of 鹅 (goose).
Common words with 饿
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
饿 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 饿
How many strokes are in 饿?
饿 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 饿 mean?
饿 (è) means hungry; to starve (sb). A common word with it is 饥饿 (jī'è), meaning "hunger; starvation".
How do you pronounce 饿?
饿 is pronounced è, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 饿?
The radical of 饿 is 饣, which carries the idea of "food". Dictionaries list 饿 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 饿?
The traditional form of 饿 is 餓. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 饿 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 饿 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 饿 is part of the HSK 1 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 1.
How do I say "I'm starving" in Chinese?
Say 我饿死了 (wǒ è sǐ le). It literally means "I'm hungry to death," but it is a normal, casual exaggeration like the English phrase.
What is the difference between 饿 and 饥饿?
饿 is the everyday word for feeling hungry. 饥饿 (jī'è) is more formal and is used for hunger or starvation as a condition, for example in news or writing about famine.