噩 (è): startling

噩 (è) is a Chinese character meaning “startling.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 王 (structural). It ranks #3017 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 噩 a jade statue 王 with four holes made in it 口. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 吃 (chī, to eat), 喝 (hē, to drink).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 口 mouth16 strokesFrequency #3017王 structural

Definitions

  1. startling

Etymology & Origin

噩

ideographicA jade statue 王 with four holes made in it 口

Decomposition: ⿻王⿱⿰口口⿰口口 (layout: overlay)

Components:王structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
噩梦è mèngnightmare
噩耗è hàonews of sb's death
浑浑噩噩hún hún è è(idiom) muddleheaded
噩运è yùnvariant of 厄運|厄运[e4 yun4]
4
Total compounds
75
As first character
0
As last character
25
As middle character

噩 appears in 4 compound words: 75 as the first character, 0 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 噩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

梦mèng
0.6193,125 co-occurrences
耗hào
0.5902,328 co-occurrences
浑hún
0.544456 co-occurrences
驭yù
0.47966 co-occurrences
醒xǐng
0.371198 co-occurrences
惊jīng
0.367102 co-occurrences
僵jiāng
0.34536 co-occurrences
般bān
0.345378 co-occurrences
秘mì
0.335300 co-occurrences
糟zāo
0.32630 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他噩干舌燥地讲了两个小时，终于说服了大家。

tā è gān shé zào dì jiǎng le liǎng gè xiǎo shí , zhōng yú shuō fú le dà jiā .

He spoke for two hours, his throat parched, and finally managed to convince everyone.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

夏和熙进组拍戏接噩耗!爱犬“病危”濒临死亡

xià hé xī jìn zǔ pāi xì jiē è hào ! ài quǎn bìng wēi bīn lín sǐ wáng

Xia Hexi Receives Devastating News While Filming! Beloved Dog "Critically Ill" and Near Death

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Mar 2026

能源市场新噩耗!俄罗斯输油港遭攻击 石油出口能力恐瘫...

néng yuán shì chǎng xīn è hào ! é luó sī shū yóu gǎng zāo gōng jī shí yóu chū kǒu néng lì kǒng tān . . .

More bad news for the energy market! Russian oil export terminal attacked; oil export capacity feared to be paralyzed...

東方日報Feb 2026

更衣室脱光遇男外卖员闯入 女子日日发噩梦

gēng yī shì tuō guāng yù nán wài mài yuán chuǎng rù nǚ zǐ rì rì fā è mèng

The dressing room stripped naked and encountered a male delivery man breaking in, and the woman had nightmares every day

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...江蕙81岁母亲初二离世!陈思安忍3天痛揭噩耗:爸妈天上团聚了

. . . jiāng 蕙 8 1 suì mǔ qīn chū èr lí shì ! chén sī ān rěn 3 tiān tòng jiē è hào : bà mā tiān shàng tuán jù le

... Jiang Hui's 81-year-old mother passed away on the second day of junior high school! Chen Si'an endured for 3 days to reveal the bad news: his parents were reunited in heaven

三立新聞網Feb 2026

“小江蕙”大年初二丧母 忍悲3天曝噩耗

xiǎo jiāng 蕙 dà nián chū èr sāng mǔ rěn bēi 3 tiān pù è hào

"Xiao Jianghui" lost her mother on the second day of the Lunar New Year and endured grief for 3 days to expose the bad news

Character Family

口 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mouth radical

吃chī喝hē叫jiào可kě口kǒu吗ma名míng吐tǔ问wèn响xiǎng

Related Characters

口kǒu吃chī喝hē问wèn叫jiào响xiǎng名míng吐tǔ可kě吗ma

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 噩 (è) mean in Chinese?
噩 (è) primarily means "startling." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3017 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 噩 have?
噩 is written with 16 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 噩?
The radical associated with 噩 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 噩?
噩 is composed of: 王 (structural), undefined (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻王⿱⿰口口⿰口口 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 噩?
Common words with 噩 include: 噩梦 (è mèng, "nightmare"); 噩耗 (è hào, "news of sb's death"); 浑浑噩噩 (hún hún è è, "(idiom) muddleheaded"); 噩运 (è yùn, "variant of 厄運|厄运[e4 yun4]"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
Is 噩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 噩 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 噩 with real-time feedback

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

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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.