(guài): strange, blame

(guài) is a Chinese character meaning “strange, blame.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #775 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. strange, blame

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjectiveqí guàistrange3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
guài wumonster
gǔ guàistrange
guài yìmonstrous
guài shòurare animal
guài rénstrange person
nán guài(it's) no wonder (that...)
zé guàito blame
guài tāifreak
guài bu deno wonder!
dà jīng xiǎo guàito make a fuss about nothing (idiom)
guài shìstrange thing
yāo guàimonster
guài zuìto blame
chǒu bā guàiugly person
cuò guàito blame sb wrongly
94
Total compounds
36
As first character
48
As last character
16
As middle character

appears in 94 compound words: 36 as the first character, 48 as the last, and 16 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.

yāo
0.73560,036 co-occurrences
0.57252,452 co-occurrences
shòu
0.5489,170 co-occurrences
0.47970,254 co-occurrences
guǐ
0.46810,062 co-occurrences
dào
0.4463,300 co-occurrences
gǎo
0.4061,974 co-occurrences
0.39918,930 co-occurrences
0.3844,002 co-occurrences
dàn
0.3801,368 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (25)

bùzúwéiguàiHSK 3+

to be no wonder; to be not surprising

phrase
dàjīngxiǎoguàiHSK 4+

to make a fuss over a trivial matter; much ado about nothing

phrase
gǔ lǐ gǔ guàiHSK 5+

quaint; odd and picturesque; weird and wonderful

phrase
gǔlíngjīngguàiHSK 5+

weird; bizarre

phrase
guài dàn bù jīngHSK 6+

uncanny; unbelievable; ridiculous

phrase
guàiliguàiqìHSK 3+

peculiar; weird; eccentric

adjective
guàimúguàiyàngHSK 5+

grotesque; outlandish; strange-looking

phrase
guài qiāng guài diàoHSK 6+

(idiom) strange accent; odd manner of speaking or singing

phrase
guài shēng guài qìHSK 3+

strange voice; affected manner of speaking

phrase
guāngguàilùlíHSK 5+

monstrous and multicolored; grotesque and variegated

phrase
huāng guài bù jīngHSK 7+

absurd; unthinkable

phrase
jiànguàibùguàiHSK 3+

to keep one's calm in the face of the unexpected; to not wonder at strange sights

phrase

Showing 12 of 25 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这件事很奇,按照常理不应该发生这种情况。

Zhè jiàn shì hěn qíguài, ànzhào chánglǐ bù yīnggāi fāshēng zhè zhǒng qíngkuàng.

This matter is very strange; according to common sense, this situation shouldn't have occurred.

LtnFeb 2026

...B》洋基大物承认模仿大谷翔平! 狂炸超远力轰(影音)

. . . B yáng jī dà wù chéng rèn mó fǎng dà gǔ xiáng píng ! kuáng zhà chāo yuǎn guài lì hōng ( yǐng yīn )

... B" Yankees big man admits to imitating Shohei Ohtani! Bombing Super Far Monster Bombardment (Video)

LtnFeb 2026

纸风车客家亲子剧《灯》屏东连演3天 今晚首场涌近4千人

zhǐ fēng chē kè jiā qīn zǐ jù dēng guài bǐng dōng lián yǎn 3 tiān jīn wǎn shǒu chǎng chōng jìn 4 qiān rén

The paper windmill Hakka parent-child drama "Lantern Monster" was performed in Pingtung for 3 consecutive days, and nearly 4,000 people poured in for the first performance tonight

LtnFeb 2026

江肇國批公務機關貼「馬上有錢」春聯很奇 今天有單位換掉了

jiāng zhào 國 pī gōng 務 機 關 貼 馬 shàng yǒu 錢 chūn 聯 hěn qí guài jīn tiān yǒu 單 wèi 換 diào le

Jiang Zhaoguo criticized government agencies for posting "Money will come immediately" Spring Festival couplets as odd. Today, some units have replaced them.

StheadlineFeb 2026

上水「獸倉」兩幼犬被困籠內 一狗斷尾惹烏蠅 區...

shàng shuǐ guài 獸 倉 兩 yòu quǎn bèi kùn 籠 內 yī gǒu 斷 wěi rě 烏 蠅 區 . . .

Two puppies were trapped in a cage at the "Beast Warehouse" in Sheung Shui...

Tatoeba

她那么匆匆忙忙的,你不觉得很奇吗?

Tā nàme cōngcōng máng máng de, nǐ bù juéde hěn qíguài ma?

Don't you think it odd that she was in such a hurry?

Tatoeba

我们要向这个兽投降吗?

Wǒmen yào xiàng zhège guàishòu tóuxiáng ma?

Are we going to surrender to these monsters?

Tatoeba

「曲奇最近行为异吗?」「他是一只猫。」

「 qǔqí zuì jìn xíngwéi guàiyì ma?」「 tā shì yī zhī māo.」

"Has Cookie been acting weird lately?" "He's a cat."

Tatoeba

真奇,他竟然被安排入住这种廉价酒店。

Zhēn qíguài, tā jìngrán bèi ānpái rùzhù zhèzhǒng liánjià jiǔdiàn.

It is strange that he should be put up at such a cheap hotel.

Tatoeba

说来奇,他的预言竟然真的灵验了。

Shuō lái qíguài, tā de yùyán jìngrán zhēn de língyàn le.

Strange to say, his prediction has come true.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced guài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 怪 (guài) mean in Chinese?
怪 (guài) primarily means "strange, blame." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #775 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 怪 have?
怪 is written with 8 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 怪?
The radical associated with 怪 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 怪?
怪 is composed of: 忄 (structural), 圣 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄圣 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 怪?
Common words with 怪 include: 奇怪 (qí guài, "strange"); 怪物 (guài wu, "monster"); 古怪 (gǔ guài, "strange"); 怪异 (guài yì, "monstrous"); 怪兽 (guài shòu, "rare animal"). There are over 94 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 怪 (guài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guài: 乖 ((of a child) obedient, well-behaved), 拐 (to turn (a corner etc)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 怪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 怪 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.