(é): good, beautiful

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

Etymologically derived, woman. Its radical form (woman) appears in many related characters such as (, woman), (nǎi, grandmother, milk), (, she).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. good
  2. beautiful

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女我 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
cháng éChang'e, the lady in the moon (Chinese mythology)
é méivariant of 蛾眉
héng ésee 嫦娥
dòu é yuānThe Injustice to Dou E (popular drama by 關漢卿|关汉卿)
4
Total compounds
25
As first character
50
As last character
25
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

cháng
0.7765,718 co-occurrences
lín
0.4479,696 co-occurrences
cáo
0.4231,404 co-occurrences
yuān
0.421384 co-occurrences
xuě
0.4182,022 co-occurrences
0.392198 co-occurrences
0.3882,088 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.387750 co-occurrences
bēn
0.366408 co-occurrences
méi
0.361228 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位士穿着得体,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.

奇客SolidotAug 2026

中国准备发射嫦七号,前往月球南极寻找水冰

zhōng guó zhǔn bèi fā shè cháng é qī hào , qián wǎng yuè qiú nán jí xún zhǎo shuǐ bīng

China is preparing to launch Chang'e 7 to search for water ice at the Moon's south pole

奇客SolidotJul 2026

中国科学家利用嫦六号从月球背面南极收集的月壤样品开展了系统的稀有气体同位素分析。

zhōng guó kē xué jiā lì yòng cháng é liù hào cóng yuè qiú bèi miàn nán jí shōu jí de yuè rǎng yàng pǐn kāi zhǎn le xì tǒng de xī yǒu qì tǐ tóng wèi sù fēn xī .

Chinese scientists conducted a systematic analysis of rare gas isotopes in lunar soil samples collected by the Chang'e-6 mission from the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon.

IT之家Jul 2026

长征五号遥十四火箭安全运抵文昌航天发射场,将执行嫦七号发射任务

cháng zhēng wǔ hào yáo shí sì huǒ jiàn ān quán yùn dǐ wén chāng háng tiān fā shè chǎng , jiāng zhí háng cháng é qī hào fā shè rèn wù

The Long March 5 Y14 rocket has safely arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Site, where it will carry out the Chang'e 7 launch mission.

少数派Jun 2026

后来,舅舅胡三元因演出事故入狱,失去了舅舅的保护,青成为了一名烧火丫头。

hòu lái , jiù jiù hú sān yuán yīn yǎn chū shì gù rù yù , shī qù le jiù jiù de bǎo hù , qīng é chéng wéi le yī míng shāo huǒ yā tóu .

Later, her uncle Hu Sanyuan was imprisoned following an accident during a performance, and without her uncle’s protection, Qing’e became a kitchen maid.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

秦腔饱含黄土风骨与蓬勃生命力,唱戏于忆秦是渡人渡己的修行。

qín qiāng bǎo hán huáng tǔ fēng gǔ yǔ péng bó shēng mìng lì , chàng xì yú yì qín é shì dù rén dù jǐ de xiū háng .

Qinqiang is steeped in the spirit of the Loess Plateau and brimming with vitality; for Yi Qin'e, performing this opera is a spiritual practice that saves both others and herself.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced é

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"); 姮娥 (héng é, "see 嫦娥"); 窦娥冤 (dòu é yuān, "The Injustice to Dou E (popular drama by 關漢卿|关汉卿)"). 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), 哦 (to chant), 鹅 (goose), 恶 (evil), 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 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.