(è): distressed

(è) is a Chinese character meaning “distressed.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2330 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a person 㔾 being crushed under pressure 厂. Its radical form (cliff) appears in many related characters such as (yuán, former), (hǎn, "cliff" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 27), occurring in 原, 历, 压 etc), (, to experience).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. distressed

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA person 㔾 being crushed under pressure 厂

Decomposition: ⿸厂㔾 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
è yùnbad luck
è guā duō ěrEcuador
è lì tè lǐ yàEritrea
è ěr ní nuò(meteorology) El Niño
kùn èin deep water
è luò sīEros (Cupid)
è ěr ní nuò xiàn xiàngEl Niño effect, equatorial climatic variation over the Pacific Ocean
è ěr bù lǔ shì(Mount) Elbrus, the highest peak of the Caucasus mountains, southwest Russia
kǎ ěr sī lǔ èKarlsruhe (city in Germany)
ní è lì déNereids (Greek sea nymphs, fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris)
è shén tǎØrsta (city in Norway)
è lì chuí yàEritrea (Tw)
è lè bù lǔÖrebro (city in Sweden)
jiě è(literary) to save from a calamity
·yuē hàn · è pǔ dài kèJohn Updike, US novelist (1932-2009), Pulitzer Prize winner
23
Total compounds
61
As first character
22
As last character
17
As middle character

appears in 23 compound words: 61 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 17 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.

guā
0.62216,770 co-occurrences
ěr
0.58778,666 co-occurrences
tiān
0.49547,598 co-occurrences
0.48213,176 co-occurrences
wén
0.45849,596 co-occurrences
0.4426,516 co-occurrences
0.40727,498 co-occurrences
pàn
0.4041,656 co-occurrences
léi
0.3896,840 co-occurrences
0.3783,618 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

Èguāduō'ěrHSK 7+

Ecuador (a country in South America)

ÈlìchuíyàHSK 7+

Eritrea

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí è zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "厄" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Mar 2026

【器乐独奏与协奏曲】维当A小调第五号小提琴协奏曲,作品37号

qì lè dú zòu yǔ xié zòu qū wéi è dāng A xiǎo diào dì wǔ hào xiǎo tí qín xié zòu qū , zuò pǐn 3 7 hào

[Instrumental Solos and Concertos] Viardot: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor, Op. 37

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Mar 2026

今年春季后期或进入尔尼诺状态 今明年夏天真的会更热吗?

jīn nián chūn jì hòu qī huò jìn rù è ěr ní nuò zhuàng tài jīn míng nián xià tiān zhēn de huì gēng rè ma ?

Will an El Niño event develop in late spring this year? Will this summer and next summer really be hotter?

Investing 香港Feb 2026

哥伦比亚对瓜多商品征收30%关税 贸易争端升级

gē lún bǐ yà duì è guā duō shāng pǐn zhēng shōu 3 0 guān shuì mào yì zhēng duān shēng jí

Colombia imposes 30% tariff on Ecuadorian goods as trade dispute escalates

Tatoeba

格雷姆葛林是我最喜欢的作家之一。

Géléi è mǔ gé lín shì wǒ zuì xǐhuan de zuòjiā zhīyī.

Graham Greene is a favorite author of mine.

Tatoeba

梅苏特·齐尔是世界上最好的中场之一。

Méi sū tè · è qí ěr shì shìjiè shàng zuì hǎo de zhōngchǎng zhīyī.

Mesut Ozil is one of the best midfielders in the world.

Tatoeba

我不相信黑猫与运有关系。

Wǒ bù xiāngxìn hēi māo yǔ èyùn yǒuguān xì.

I don't believe black cats cause bad luck.

Tatoeba

他们向西北方向进军,进入了谢南多河谷。

Tāmen xiàngxī běifāng xiàng jìnjūn, jìnrù le xiè nán duō è hégǔ.

They marched northwest into the Shenandoah Valley.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced è

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 厄 (è) mean in Chinese?
厄 (è) primarily means "distressed." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2330 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 厄 have?
厄 is written with 4 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 厄?
The radical associated with 厄 is 厂 (cliff). This radical appears in many characters related to cliff.
What are the components of 厄?
厄 is composed of: 厂 (structural), 㔾 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸厂㔾 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 厄?
Common words with 厄 include: 厄运 (è yùn, "bad luck"); 厄瓜多尔 (è guā duō ěr, "Ecuador"); 厄立特里亚 (è lì tè lǐ yà, "Eritrea"); 厄尔尼诺 (è ěr ní nuò, "(meteorology) El Niño"); 困厄 (kùn è, "in deep water"). There are over 23 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 厄 (è)?
Several characters share the pronunciation è: 讹 (error), 俄 (Russia), 娥 (good), 鹅 (goose), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 厄 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 厄 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.