寡 (guǎ): few, widow
寡 (guǎ) is a Chinese character meaning “few, widow.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 宀 (structural). It ranks #2212 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Definitions
- few, widow
Stroke Order
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Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 寡妇 | guǎ fu | widow |
| 优柔寡断 | yōu róu guǎ duàn | indecisive |
| 沉默寡言 | chén mò guǎ yán | habitually silent (idiom) |
| 寡人 | guǎ rén | I (first person pronoun used by royalty or nobility) |
| 守寡 | shǒu guǎ | to live as widow |
| 孤陋寡闻 | gū lòu guǎ wén | ignorant and inexperienced |
| 寡不敌众 | guǎ bù dí zhòng | the few are no match for the many |
| 寡言 | guǎ yán | taciturn |
| 寡头 | guǎ tóu | oligarch |
| 寡居 | guǎ jū | to live as a widow |
| 清心寡欲 | qīng xīn guǎ yù | (idiom) uninterested in self-indulgence |
| 曲高和寡 | qǔ gāo hè guǎ | difficult songs find few singers (idiom) |
| 鳏寡孤独 | guān guǎ gū dú | lit. widowers, widows, orphans and the childless (idiom) |
| 得道多助，失道寡助 | dé dào duō zhù , shī dào guǎ zhù | A just cause attracts much support, an unjust one finds little (idiom, from Mencius) |
| 寡头政治 | guǎ tóu zhèng zhì | oligarchy |
寡 appears in 43 compound words: 33 as the first character, 19 as the last, and 49 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 寡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (21)
Showing 12 of 21 idioms containing 寡.
Example Sentences
这个产品的市场份额很少，需要加大推广力度。
Zhè gè chǎnpǐn de shìchǎng fèn'é hěn shǎo, xūyào jiādà tuīguǎng lìdù.
This product has a small market share and needs increased promotion efforts.
龙七公:美国失道寡助 伊朗底气十足
lóng qī gōng : měi guó shī dào guǎ zhù yī lǎng de qì shí zú
Long Qigong: The U.S. Has Lost the Moral High Ground and Has Few Allies, While Iran Is Full of Confidence
5星座爱搞暧昧把你当备胎 天秤优柔寡断 这星座关心超朋友界限
5 xīng zuò ài gǎo ài mèi bǎ nǐ dāng bèi tāi tiān chēng yōu róu guǎ duàn zhè xīng zuò guān xīn chāo péng yǒu jiè xiàn
5 zodiac signs love to be ambiguous and treat you as a spare tire, Libra is indecisive, this zodiac sign cares about the boundaries of super friends
青壯陣亡、人口外逃 烏克蘭淪「孤兒寡母之國」
qīng 壯 陣 wáng rén kǒu wài táo 烏 kè 蘭 淪 gū 兒 guǎ mǔ zhī 國
Young and able-bodied men killed, population fleeing: Ukraine becomes a "country of orphans and widows."
寡妇为她的丈夫哀悼了很久。
Guǎfu wèi tā de zhàngfu āidào le hěn jiǔ.
The widow mourned her husband for a long time.
汤姆是个寡欲的人。
Tāngmǔ shì ge guǎyù de rén.
Tom is a man of few wants.
林肯本人是沉默寡言的。
Línkěn běnrén shì chénmò-guǎyán de.
Lincoln himself was silent.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is 寡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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