惭 (cán): ashamed

惭 (cán) is a Chinese character meaning “ashamed.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 忄 (semantic) and 斩 (phonetic). It ranks #2716 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 惭 heart. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 忄 heart11 strokesFrequency #2716忄 semantic斩 phonetic

Definitions

  1. ashamed

Etymology & Origin

惭

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿰忄斩 (layout: left-right)

Components:忄semantic斩phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Practice writing 惭 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
惭愧adjectivecán kuìashamed
大言不惭phrasedà yán bù cánto boast shamelessly
自惭形秽phrasezì cán xíng huì(idiom) to feel inferior
羞惭adjectivexiū cána disgrace
4
Total compounds
25
As first character
50
As last character
25
As middle character

惭 appears in 4 compound words: 25 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 25 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 惭 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

愧kuì
0.715462 co-occurrences
羞xiū
0.49558 co-occurrences
惧jù
0.47640 co-occurrences
愤fèn
0.42420 co-occurrences
逐zhú
0.38488 co-occurrences
缝féng
0.38210 co-occurrences
俯fǔ
0.37710 co-occurrences
悔huǐ
0.37614 co-occurrences
感gǎn
0.362112 co-occurrences
觉jué
0.35422 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

大言不惭dàyánbùcánHSK 7+

to brag unblushingly; to be shameless

phrase
自惭形秽zìcánxínghuìHSK 7+

to feel ashamed of one's inferiority

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这件事让我惭烦意乱，整夜都没有睡好。

zhè jiàn shì ràng wǒ cán fán yì luàn , zhěng yè dū méi yǒu shuì hǎo .

This matter has left me troubled and restless, unable to sleep well all night.

Tatoeba

我对我自己感到惭愧。

Wǒ duì wǒ zìjǐ gǎndào cánkuì.

I'm ashamed of myself.

Tatoeba

我很惭愧，这是我第一次对我爸说谎。

Wǒ hěn cánkuì, zhè shì wǒ dìyīcì duì wǒ bà shuōhuǎng.

This is the first time I've ever lied to my father and I am ashamed of myself.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 忄 (heart) component

情qíng性xìng怕pà惊jīng怀huái慢màn懂dǒng惯guàn恨hèn忆yì

Related Characters

忙máng快kuài怎zěn息xī您nín慢màn必bì忽hū态tài怕pà

Homophones — Characters pronounced cán

参cān残cán餐cān惨cǎn灿càn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 惭 (cán) mean in Chinese?
惭 (cán) primarily means "ashamed." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2716 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 惭 and 渐?
惭 (cán) and 渐 (jiàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 忄 vs 氵 (same 斩 component).
How many strokes does 惭 have?
惭 is written with 11 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 惭?
The radical associated with 惭 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 惭?
惭 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), 斩 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄斩 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 惭?
Common words with 惭 include: 惭愧 (cán kuì, "ashamed"); 大言不惭 (dà yán bù cán, "to boast shamelessly"); 自惭形秽 (zì cán xíng huì, "(idiom) to feel inferior"); 羞惭 (xiū cán, "a disgrace"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 惭 (cán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cán: 参 (to take part in), 残 (to destroy), 餐 (meal), 惨 (miserable), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 惭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 惭 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 惭 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.