娥 (é): good, beautiful

娥 (é) is a Chinese character meaning “good.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 我 (phonetic). It ranks #2620 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 娥 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 女 woman10 strokesFrequency #2620女 semantic我 phonetic

Definitions

  1. good
  2. beautiful

Etymology & Origin

娥

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女我 (layout: left-right)

Components:女semantic我phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
嫦娥cháng éChang'e, the lady in the moon (Chinese mythology)
娥眉é méivariant of 蛾眉[e2 mei2]
窦娥冤dòu é yuānThe Injustice to Dou E (popular drama by 關漢卿|关汉卿[Guan1 Han4 qing1])
姮娥héng ésee 嫦娥[Chang2 e2]
4
Total compounds
25
As first character
50
As last character
25
As middle character

娥 appears in 4 compound words: 25 as the first character, 50 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 娥 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

嫦cháng
0.7765,718 co-occurrences
林lín
0.4479,696 co-occurrences
曹cáo
0.4231,404 co-occurrences
冤yuān
0.421384 co-occurrences
雪xuě
0.4182,022 co-occurrences
媳xí
0.392198 co-occurrences
素sù
0.3882,088 co-occurrences
郑zhèng
0.387750 co-occurrences
奔bēn
0.366408 co-occurrences
眉méi
0.361228 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位娥士穿着得体，举止优雅大方。

zhè wèi é shì chuān zhe dé tī , jǔ zhǐ yōu yǎ dà fāng .

This lady was impeccably dressed and carried herself with grace and poise.

Character Family

女 Radical Family — Characters sharing the woman radical

嫦cháng妒dù妨fáng婚hūn嫁jià奸jiān娇jiāo姐jiě婪lán妈mā

Related Characters

女nǚ奶nǎi她tā好hǎo妈mā妹mèi姐jiě如rú姓xìng始shǐ

Homophones — Characters pronounced é

俄é鹅é哦é讹é额é厄è恶è饿è遏è鳄è

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 娥 (é) mean in Chinese?
娥 (é) primarily means "good." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2620 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 娥 and 坏?
娥 (é) and 坏 (huài) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 娥 (good) vs 坏 (bad).
How many strokes does 娥 have?
娥 is written with 10 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 娥?
The radical associated with 娥 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 娥?
娥 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 我 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女我 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 娥?
Common words with 娥 include: 嫦娥 (cháng é, "Chang'e, the lady in the moon (Chinese mythology)"); 娥眉 (é méi, "variant of 蛾眉[e2 mei2]"); 窦娥冤 (dòu é yuān, "The Injustice to Dou E (popular drama by 關漢卿|关汉卿[Guan1 Han4 qing1])"); 姮娥 (héng é, "see 嫦娥[Chang2 e2]"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 娥 (é)?
Several characters share the pronunciation é: 俄 (Russia), 鹅 (goose), 哦 (to chant), 讹 (error), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 娥 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 娥 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 娥 with real-time feedback

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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.