怪 (guài): strange, blame

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. strange, blame

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 怪

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
奇怪adjectiveqí guàistrange3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
怪物nounguài wumonster
古怪adjectivegǔ guàistrange
怪异adjectiveguài yìmonstrous
怪兽nounguài shòurare animal
怪人nounguài rénstrange person
难怪verbnán guài(it's) no wonder (that...)
责怪verbzé guàito blame
怪胎nounguài tāifreak
怪不得adverbguài bu deno wonder!
大惊小怪phrasedà jīng xiǎo guàito make a fuss about nothing (idiom)
怪事nounguài shìstrange thing
妖怪nounyāo guàimonster
怪罪verbguài zuìto blame
丑八怪nounchǒu bā guàiugly person
错怪verbcuò guàito blame sb wrongly
95
Total compounds
36
As first character
48
As last character
16
As middle character

怪 appears in 95 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 怪 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

妖yāo
0.72520,012 co-occurrences
奇qí
0.57117,543 co-occurrences
兽shòu
0.5483,081 co-occurrences
笼lóng
0.52216 co-occurrences
犬quǎn
0.51318 co-occurrences
幼yòu
0.47319 co-occurrences
物wù
0.47223,418 co-occurrences
鬼guǐ
0.4613,354 co-occurrences
盗dào
0.4401,100 co-occurrences
仓cāng
0.43516 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (25)

不足为怪bùzúwéiguàiHSK 3+

to be no wonder; to be not surprising

phrase
大惊小怪dàjīngxiǎoguàiHSK 4+

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

phrase
古里古怪gǔ lǐ gǔ guàiHSK 5+

quaint; odd and picturesque; weird and wonderful

phrase
古灵精怪gǔlíngjīngguàiHSK 5+

weird; bizarre

phrase
怪诞不经guài dàn bù jīngHSK 6+

uncanny; unbelievable; ridiculous

phrase
怪里怪气guàiliguàiqìHSK 3+

peculiar; weird; eccentric

adjective
怪模怪样guàimúguàiyàngHSK 5+

grotesque; outlandish; strange-looking

phrase
怪腔怪调guài qiāng guài diàoHSK 6+

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

phrase
怪声怪气guài shēng guài qìHSK 3+

strange voice; affected manner of speaking

phrase
光怪陆离guāngguàilùlíHSK 5+

monstrous and multicolored; grotesque and variegated

phrase
荒怪不经huāng guài bù jīngHSK 7+

absurd; unthinkable

phrase
见怪不怪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 怪.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这件事很奇怪,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! 狂炸超远怪力轰(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《灯怪》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」春聯很奇怪 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「怪獸倉」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,你不觉得很奇怪吗?

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

我们要向这个怪兽投降吗?

Wǒmen yào xiàng zhège guàishòu tóuxiáng ma?

Are we going to surrender to these monsters?

Tatoeba

「曲奇最近行为怪异吗?」「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

真奇怪,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

说来奇怪,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 95 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 怪 (guài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guài: 拐 (to turn (a corner etc)), 乖 ((of a child) obedient, well-behaved). 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 怪 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.