鳏 meaning and stroke order
Huge fish; widower; bachelor
How to write 鳏, stroke by stroke
18 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 鳏
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- widower
How 鳏 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Fish.
鱼 gives the meaning and 眔 hints at the sound.
Radical: 鱼 (fish), shared by 79 characters on this site.
How to remember 鳏
鳏 (guān) is a pictophonetic character: 鱼 (yú, fish) on the left gives the meaning area, and 眔 on the right gives the sound. Picture a single big fish swimming alone to remember a man living alone, a widower.
Today 鳏 almost only appears in fixed words like 鳏夫 (guānfū, widower) and the set phrase 鳏寡孤独 (guān guǎ gū dú, widowers, widows, orphans and the childless). It sounds formal or literary. Example: 他做了十年鳏夫。(Tā zuò le shí nián guānfū.) He has been a widower for ten years.
Common mistake: Learners often read it as yú because of the 鱼 radical, but the sound comes from the right side and is guān, first tone. Also do not confuse 鳏 (widower) with 寡 (guǎ), which in 寡妇 (guǎfu) means widow.
Common words with 鳏
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 鳏夫 | guānfū | old wifeless man; bachelor; widower |
鳏 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 鳏
How many strokes are in 鳏?
鳏 is written with 18 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 鳏 mean?
鳏 (guān) means huge fish; widower; bachelor. A common word with it is 鳏夫 (guānfū), meaning "old wifeless man; bachelor; widower".
How do you pronounce 鳏?
鳏 is pronounced guān, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 鳏?
The radical of 鳏 is 鱼, which carries the idea of "fish". Dictionaries list 鳏 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 鳏?
The traditional form of 鳏 is 鰥. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 鳏 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 鳏夫 used in everyday spoken Chinese?
Not much. In casual speech people usually say 老伴去世了 (lǎobàn qùshì le, his wife passed away) or 单身 (dānshēn, single). 鳏夫 sounds bookish and appears more in writing or news.
Why does a character with the fish radical mean widower?
The character originally named a kind of large fish, which is why it has 鱼. The meaning of an unmarried or widowed man is a later sense. The data does not explain how the shift happened, so it is best to simply learn both meanings.