惦 (diàn): to think of, to remember, to miss

惦 (diàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to think of.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 忄 (semantic) and 店 (phonetic). It ranks #2962 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to think of
  2. to remember
  3. to miss

Etymology & Origin

惦

pictophoneticmind

Decomposition: ⿰忄店 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
惦记verbdiàn jìto think of
惦念verbdiàn niànto constantly have (sb or sth) on one's mind
不怕贼偷就怕贼惦记bù pà zéi tōu jiù pà zéi diàn jìmuch worse than having something stolen is when a thief has you in his sights (idiom)
3
Total compounds
67
As first character
0
As last character
33
As middle character

惦 appears in 3 compound words: 67 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 33 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 惦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

念niàn
0.409114 co-occurrences
你nǐ
0.38872 co-occurrences
记jì
0.38577 co-occurrences
著zhù
0.368120 co-occurrences
着zhe
0.36572 co-occurrences
仍réng
0.32334 co-occurrences
吉jí
0.31434 co-occurrences
心xīn
0.31168 co-occurrences
一yī
0.18681 co-occurrences
不bù
0.18427 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

虽然失败了,但他惦不气馁,继续努力。

suī rán shī bài le , dàn tā diàn bù qì něi , jì xù nǔ lì .

Though he failed, he did not lose heart and continued to persevere.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

而飞哥这边,除了带孩子们户外活动,他还惦记着生病在家的厚厚。

ér fēi gē zhè biān , chú le dài hái zǐ men hù wài huó dòng , tā hái diàn jì zhe shēng bìng zài jiā de hòu hòu .

As for Fei Ge, besides taking the kids out for outdoor activities, he was also worried about Houhou, who was home sick.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

对于老人来说,发送“早安”问候,不过是一份惦记。

duì yú lǎo rén lái shuō , fā sòng zǎo ān wèn hòu , bù guò shì yī fèn diàn jì .

For the elderly, sending a "good morning" greeting is simply a way of showing they’re thinking of them.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

这份长久的惦念,最终催生《鱼水》这部小说。

zhè fèn cháng jiǔ de diàn niàn , zuì zhōng cuī shēng yú shuǐ zhè bù xiǎo shuō .

This long-standing preoccupation ultimately gave rise to the novel *Fish and Water*.

少数派Jun 2026

这意味着你完全不必担心又多了一个要惦记着充电的设备,也不存在电池老化的隐忧。

zhè yì wèi zhe nǐ wán quán bù bì dān xīn yòu duō le yī gè yāo diàn jì zhe chōng diàn de shè bèi , yě bù cún zài diàn chí lǎo huà de yǐn yōu .

This means you don't have to worry at all about having yet another device to keep track of when it needs charging, and there's no need to worry about battery degradation either.

爱范儿Jun 2026

它不会让耳朵一直惦记着这副耳机的存在。

tā bù huì ràng ěr duǒ yī zhí diàn jì zhe zhè fù ěr jī de cún zài .

It doesn't make you constantly aware of the headphones.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 忄 (mind) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced diàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 惦 (diàn) mean in Chinese?
惦 (diàn) primarily means "to think of." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2962 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 惦 have?
惦 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 惦?
The radical associated with 惦 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 惦?
惦 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), 店 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄店 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 惦?
Common words with 惦 include: 惦记 (diàn jì, "to think of"); 惦念 (diàn niàn, "to constantly have (sb or sth) on one's mind"); 不怕贼偷就怕贼惦记 (bù pà zéi tōu jiù pà zéi diàn jì, "much worse than having something stolen is when a thief has you in his sights (idiom)"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 惦 (diàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation diàn: 点 (point, o'clock), 电 (lightning), 店 (shop), 典 (canon), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 惦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 惦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 惦 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.