Meaning of 症状
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- symptom (of an illness)
How to use 症状
症状 is the standard word for symptoms in medical and everyday talk, often with verbs like 出现 (chūxiàn, appear) or 有 (yǒu, have). 你有什么症状？(Nǐ yǒu shénme zhèngzhuàng?) What symptoms do you have?
症 (zhèng) has the sickness radical 疒 over 正, so think of it as the illness itself. 状 (zhuàng) means form or appearance, as in 形状 (xíngzhuàng), so 症状 is the form an illness shows on your body: its symptoms.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 症状 with 状况 (zhuàngkuàng). 状况 is a general condition or situation, while 症状 only means signs of an illness. Also note that 症 is fourth tone zhèng, the same sound as 正, so do not read it as zhēng.
症状 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
症 zhèng · ailment · 10 strokes
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状 zhuàng · state · 7 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 症状.
| 状况 | zhuàngkuàng | condition; state; situation |
| 状态 | zhuàngtài | condition; state; state of affairs |
| 形状 | xíngzhuàng | form; shape |
| 现状 | xiànzhuàng | current situation |
| 癌症 | áizhèng | cancer |
| 病症 | bìngzhèng | disease; illness |
| 抑郁症 | yìyùzhèng | clinical depression |
| 后遗症 | hòuyízhèng | (medicine) sequelae; residual effects |
| 告状 | gàozhuàng | to tell on sb; to complain (to a teacher, a superior etc); to bring a lawsuit |
| 状元 | zhuàngyuan | top scorer in the palace examination (highest rank of the Imperial examination system); se |
| 炎症 | yánzhèng | inflammation |
| 症结 | zhēngjié | hard lump in the abdomen (in Chinese medicine); crux of an issue |
Questions about 症状
What does 症状 mean?
症状 (zhèngzhuàng) means "symptom (of an illness)" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 症状?
症状 is made of 2 characters: 症 (10 strokes), 状 (7 strokes). That is 17 strokes in total.
Is 症状 an HSK word?
Yes. 症状 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 症状 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 症状 is written 症狀.
How do I say a symptom is mild or serious?
Use 轻 (qīng) for mild and 严重 (yánzhòng) for serious. For example, 症状很轻 (zhèngzhuàng hěn qīng) means the symptoms are mild, and 症状严重 (zhèngzhuàng yánzhòng) means they are severe.
Can 症状 be used outside of medicine?
Yes, sometimes it is used figuratively for signs of a problem, such as in a society or an economy. In daily speech, though, it almost always refers to physical or mental illness.