肠 (cháng): intestine

肠 (cháng) is a Chinese character meaning “intestine.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺼ (semantic) and 昜 (phonetic). It ranks #1898 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 肠 flesh. Its radical form 月 (moon) appears in many related characters such as 月 (yuè, moon, month), 有 (yǒu, to have), 朋 (péng, friend).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. intestine

Etymology & Origin

肠

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼昜 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 肠

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
香肠nounxiāng chángsausage6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
肠子nouncháng ziintestines
腊肠nounlà chángsausage
心肠nounxīn chángheart
结肠nounjié chángcolon (large intestine)
灌肠verbguàn chángenema
铁石心肠phrasetiě shí xīn chángto have a heart of stone
肠胃nouncháng wèistomach and intestine
肠道nouncháng dàointestines
直肠nounzhí chángrectum (anatomy)
大肠noundà chángthe large intestine
小肠nounxiǎo chángsmall intestine
饥肠辘辘phrasejī cháng lù lù(idiom) stomach rumbling with hunger
热心肠nounrè xīn chángwarmhearted
盲肠nounmáng chángappendix (anatomy)
大肠杆菌noundà cháng gǎn jūnEscherichia coli (E. coli)
89
Total compounds
20
As first character
44
As last character
36
As middle character

肠 appears in 89 compound words: 20 as the first character, 44 as the last, and 36 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 肠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

淀diàn
0.66715 co-occurrences
胃wèi
0.6551,818 co-occurrences
饶ráo
0.60710 co-occurrences
菌jūn
0.505844 co-occurrences
杆gān
0.498430 co-occurrences
癌ái
0.484433 co-occurrences
炎yán
0.474600 co-occurrences
泻xiè
0.45954 co-occurrences
粪fèn
0.44954 co-occurrences
膜mó
0.444288 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (20)

愁肠百结chóu cháng bǎi jiéHSK 6+

hundred knots of worry in one's intestines (idiom); weighed down with anxiety

phrase
大肠杆菌dàcháng gǎnjūnHSK 7+

Escherichia coli

noun
荡气回肠dàng qì huí chángHSK 7+

heart-rending (drama, music, poem etc); deeply moving

phrase
肝肠寸断gānchángcùnduànHSK 6+

heartbroken; grieved; starving

phrase
花花肠子huāhua chángziHSK 6+

trick; scheme

noun
回肠荡气huí cháng dàng qìHSK 7+

soul-stirring (of drama, poem or artwork); heart-rending; deeply moving

phrase
脑满肠肥nǎomǎnchángféiHSK 6+

obese; corpulent; greedy; extravagant

phrase

very anxious and unable to set one's mind at ease

phrase
腔肠动物qiāngcháng dòngwùHSK 6+

coelenterate

noun
柔肠寸断róuchángcùnduànHSK 6+

to be heartbroken; to be grief-stricken

phrase
十二指肠shí'èrzhǐchángHSK 6+

duodenum

noun
鼠肚鸡肠shǔ dù jī chángHSK 6+

small-minded

phrase

Showing 12 of 20 idioms containing 肠.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

肠胃不好的人应该少吃辛辣食物,多吃清淡的。

Chángwèi bù hǎo de rén yīnggāi shǎo chī làwèi shíwù, duō chī qīngdàn de.

People with poor digestion should eat less spicy food and more bland food.

BastillepostFeb 2026

...节大餐后流行“轻断食”?中医提醒:极端清肠恐耗气血伤脾胃

. . . jié dà cān hòu liú háng qīng duàn shí ? zhōng yī tí xǐng : jí duān qīng cháng kǒng hào qì xiě shāng pí wèi

... Popular "light fasting" after the holiday meal? Traditional Chinese medicine reminds: Extreme bowel cleansing may consume qi and blood and damage the spleen and stomach

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

她腹部胀气 原来横结肠有鞭虫

tā fù bù zhàng qì yuán lái héng jié cháng yǒu biān chóng

She had bloating in her abdomen and it turned out that there were whipworms in her transverse colon

StheadlineFeb 2026

“瑜珈裤时代”爆红—全网疯玩“热狗肠包X” 珍珠虾滑杨枝甘露乜都塞

瑜 珈 kù shí dài bào hóng — quán wǎng fēng wán rè gǒu cháng bāo X zhēn zhū xiā huá yáng zhī gān lù 乜 dōu sāi

"Yoga Pants Era" became popular - the whole network is crazy to play "hot dog sausage bun X" pearl shrimp slippery poplar branch nectar is stuffed with everything

StheadlineFeb 2026

...大变化自测健康 这2种颜色恐患胰脏癌/大肠癌 伴随3情况须求医

. . . dà biàn huà zì cè jiàn kāng zhè 2 zhǒng yán sè kǒng huàn 胰 zāng ái dà cháng ái bàn suí 3 qíng kuàng xū qiú yī

... Big changes in self-test health These 2 colors may cause pancreatic cancer/colorectal cancer with 3 conditions must seek medical attention

百度新闻Feb 2026

盘核桃、叠衣服、穿烤肠,银河通用春晚机器人是怎么“..

pán hé táo dié yī fú chuān kǎo cháng , yín hé tōng yòng chūn wǎn jī qì rén shì zěn má . .

Cracking walnuts, folding clothes, threading sausages—how does the Galaxy Universal Spring Festival Gala robot do it?

Tatoeba

谁能融化你的铁石心肠?

Shéi néng rónghuà nǐ de tiěshíxīncháng?

Who could melt that stone heart of yours?

Tatoeba

你见过灌肠的做法吗?

Nǐ jiànguo guàncháng de zuòfǎ ma?

Have you ever seen sausage being made?

Tatoeba

你要培根还是要香肠?

Nǐ yào péigēn háishi yào xiāngcháng?

Would you like bacon or sausage?

Tatoeba

我不懂为何义式辣肠披萨如此受欢迎。

Wǒ bù dǒng wèihé Yìshì là cháng pīsà rúcǐ shòu huānyíng.

I don't understand why pepperoni pizza is so popular.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the ⺼ (flesh) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced cháng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 肠 (cháng) mean in Chinese?
肠 (cháng) primarily means "intestine." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1898 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 肠 and 扬?
肠 (cháng) and 扬 (yáng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 月 vs 扌 (same 昜 component).
How many strokes does 肠 have?
肠 is written with 7 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 肠?
The radical associated with 肠 is 月 (moon). This radical appears in many characters related to moon.
What are the components of 肠?
肠 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 昜 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼昜 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 肠?
Common words with 肠 include: 香肠 (xiāng cháng, "sausage"); 肠子 (cháng zi, "intestines"); 腊肠 (là cháng, "sausage"); 心肠 (xīn cháng, "heart"); 结肠 (jié cháng, "colon (large intestine)"). There are over 89 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 肠 (cháng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cháng: 场 (field, place), 畅 (free), 长 (long), 常 (always), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 肠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 肠 and the traditional form is 腸.

Practice writing 肠 with real-time feedback

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

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.