(cháng): to repay, to compensate for, to recompense

(cháng) is a Chinese character meaning “to repay.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1321 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, person. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to repay
  2. to compensate for
  3. to recompense

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻尝 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbbǔ chángto compensate6
verbpéi chángto compensate6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
cháng huánto repay
rú yuàn yǐ chángto have one's wish fulfilled
péi cháng jīncompensation
wú chángfree
cháng mìngto pay with one's life
yǒu chángpaying
dé bù cháng shīthe gains do not make up for the losses (idiom)
qīng chángto repay a debt in full
bào chángto repay
cháng fùto pay back
dǐ chángto compensate
bǔ cháng fèicompensation
cháng zhàito repay a debt
dé cháng suǒ yuàn(idiom) to have one's wish fulfilled
xuè zhài yào yòng xuè lái chángA debt of blood must be paid in blood.
25
Total compounds
20
As first character
64
As last character
16
As middle character

appears in 25 compound words: 20 as the first character, 64 as the last, and 16 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

péi
0.86829,744 co-occurrences
0.65818,715 co-occurrences
zhài
0.5833,516 co-occurrences
hái
0.4858,886 co-occurrences
sǔn
0.4822,859 co-occurrences
0.4778,856 co-occurrences
dài
0.459660 co-occurrences
é
0.4341,992 co-occurrences
0.4292,502 co-occurrences
qiàn
0.421762 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

débùchángshīHSK 6+

the loss outweighs the gain; to do more harm than good

phrase
déchángsuǒyuànHSK 6+

to have one's wish fulfilled

phrase
rúyuànyǐchángHSK 6+

to have one's wish fulfilled

phrase
xuèzhàixuèchángHSK 7+

Debts of blood must be paid in blood. / Blood must atone for blood.

phrase
sù yuàn yǐ chángHSK 6+

a long-cherished ambition is realized

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

品很好,在村里很受尊敬。

tā cháng pǐn hěn hǎo , zài cūn lǐ hěn shòu zūn jìng .

He is a man of integrity and is highly respected in the village.

JiemianFeb 2026

...骗案再起波澜,湘财证券涉3.43亿连带赔

. . . piàn àn zài qǐ bō lán , 湘 cái zhèng quàn shè 3 . 4 3 yì lián dài péi cháng

... The fraud case made waves again, and Xiangcai Securities involved 343 million joint and several compensation

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...只赔千元折价券挨批没诚意 律师:最高可求2万

. . . zhī péi qiān yuán zhé jià quàn āi pī méi chéng yì lǜ shī : zuì gāo kě qiú cháng 2 wàn

... Only 1,000 yuan discount coupon was criticized for being insincere Lawyer: Up to 20,000 yuan can be claimed

NewtalkFeb 2026

...个资事件波及20万台湾帐号! 每名用户补千元折价券

. . . gè zī shì jiàn bō jí 2 0 wàn tái wān zhàng hào ! měi míng yòng hù bǔ cháng qiān yuán zhé jià quàn

... The personal information incident affected 200,000 Taiwanese accounts! Each user compensates for 1,000 yuan discount coupons

工商時報Feb 2026

...澎台湾:将提供总金额超过新台币2亿元的补方案

. . . péng tái wān : jiāng tí gōng zǒng jīn é chāo guò xīn tái bì 2 yì yuán de bǔ cháng fāng àn

... Peng Taiwan: A compensation plan with a total amount of more than NT$200 million will be provided

東方日報Feb 2026

...瑜伽租场发生意外 学生整亲头索5万心灵补

. . . 瑜 伽 zū chǎng fā shēng yì wài xué shēng zhěng qīn tóu suǒ 5 wàn xīn líng bǔ cháng

... An accident occurred in a yoga rental venue, and the student asked for 50,000 yuan in spiritual compensation

Tatoeba

他们状告政府赔损失。

Tāmen zhuànggào zhèngfǔ péicháng sǔnshī.

They sued the government for damages.

Tatoeba

这个家庭非常贫穷以至于无法还贷款。

Zhège jiātíng fēicháng pínqióng yǐzhìyú wúfǎ chánghuán dàikuǎn.

The family is too poor to pay back the debts.

Tatoeba

他终于如愿以了。

Tā zhōngyú rúyuànyǐcháng le.

He finally got his wish.

Tatoeba

你需要赔他损失的钱。

Nǐ xūyào péicháng tā sǔnshī de qián.

You must compensate him for the money he lost.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced cháng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 偿 (cháng) mean in Chinese?
偿 (cháng) primarily means "to repay." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1321 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 偿 have?
偿 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 偿?
The radical associated with 偿 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 偿?
偿 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 尝 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻尝 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 偿?
Common words with 偿 include: 补偿 (bǔ cháng, "to compensate"); 赔偿 (péi cháng, "to compensate"); 偿还 (cháng huán, "to repay"); 如愿以偿 (rú yuàn yǐ cháng, "to have one's wish fulfilled"); 赔偿金 (péi cháng jīn, "compensation"). There are over 25 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 偿 (cháng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation cháng: 昌 ((bound form) prosperous), 猖 (ferocious), 肠 (intestine), 尝 (to taste), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 偿 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 偿 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.