荒 (huāng): desolate, shortage, scarce

荒 (huāng) is a Chinese character meaning “desolate.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 芒 (semantic) and 川 (phonetic). It ranks #1320 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 荒 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 花 (huā, flower), 茶 (chá, tea), 菜 (cài, vegetable, dish).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. desolate
  2. shortage
  3. scarce

Etymology & Origin

荒

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱芒川 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
荒谬adjectivehuāng miùabsurd
荒唐adjectivehuāng tángbeyond belief
荒野nounhuāng yěwilderness
饥荒nounjī huāngcrop failure
荒诞adjectivehuāng dànbeyond belief
荒废verbhuāng fèito abandon (cultivated fields)
荒地nounhuāng dìwasteland
荒凉adjectivehuāng liángdesolate
荒岛nounhuāng dǎobarren or uninhabited island
荒芜adjectivehuāng wúleft to return to unchecked growth
荒漠nounhuāng mòdesert
荒郊nounhuāng jiāodesolate area outside a town
荒原nounhuāng yuánwasteland
蛮荒adjectivemán huāngsavage
拓荒者nountuò huāng zhěpioneer
69
Total compounds
54
As first character
35
As last character
12
As middle character

荒 appears in 69 compound words: 54 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 12 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 荒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

谬miù
0.6941,494 co-occurrences
饥jī
0.6944,282 co-occurrences
漠mò
0.5883,206 co-occurrences
垦kěn
0.529836 co-occurrences
拓tuò
0.5223,038 co-occurrences
瓶píng
0.51215 co-occurrences
颈jǐng
0.49711 co-occurrences
诞dàn
0.4821,056 co-occurrences
野yě
0.4685,586 co-occurrences
废fèi
0.4631,760 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

兵荒马乱bīnghuāngmǎluànHSK 7+

war-torn; ravaged by war; chaotic

phrase
地老天荒dìlǎotiānhuāngHSK 7+

alternative form of 天荒地老 (tiānhuāngdìlǎo)

noun
荒诞不经huāngdànbùjīngHSK 7+

ridiculous; absurd; illogical; nonsensical

phrase
荒诞无稽huāng dàn wú jīHSK 7+

ridiculous; unbelievable; absurd

phrase
荒怪不经huāng guài bù jīngHSK 7+

absurd; unthinkable

phrase
荒谬绝伦huāngmiùjuélúnHSK 7+

absolutely ridiculous; preposterous; absurd in the highest degree

phrase
荒山野岭huāngshānyělǐngHSK 7+

wild and mountainous countryside

phrase
荒唐无稽huāng táng wú jīHSK 7+

preposterous

phrase
荒无人烟huāng wú rén yānHSK 7+

desolate and uninhabited (idiom)

phrase
荒烟蔓草huāng yān màn cǎoHSK 7+

lit. abandoned by men and choked with weeds; desolate (idiom)

phrase
落荒而逃luòhuāng'értáoHSK 7+

to flee after being defeated

phrase
天荒地老tiānhuāngdìlǎoHSK 7+

end of time; all eternity

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing 荒.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

荒字由9笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

huāng zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "荒" consists of nine strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

特朗普:任何国家如藉最高法院荒谬裁决耍花招 将面临更重关税

tè lǎng pǔ : rèn hé guó jiā rú 藉 zuì gāo fǎ yuàn huāng miù cái jué shuǎ huā zhāo jiāng miàn lín gēng chóng guān shuì

Trump: Any country that plays tricks with the absurd Supreme Court ruling will face heavier tariffs

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

扩产也来不及!全球记忆体荒将成AI竞争关键瓶颈 又一矽谷大老发声示...

kuò chǎn yě lái bù jí ! quán qiú jì yì tǐ huāng jiāng chéng A I jìng zhēng guān jiàn píng jǐng yòu yī 矽 gǔ dà lǎo fā shēng shì . . .

It's too late to expand production! The global memory shortage will become a key bottleneck in AI competition, and another Silicon Valley boss has spoken out...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...马斯克提太空兴建资料中心 奥特曼再呛“很荒谬”

. . . mǎ sī kè tí tài kōng xīng jiàn zī liào zhōng xīn ào tè 曼 zài qiàng hěn huāng miù

... Musk mentioned the construction of a data center in space, and Ultraman choked again "It's ridiculous"

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

荒地变身水耕农场 吉新文英成功种出日本网纹...

huāng dì biàn shēn shuǐ gēng nóng chǎng jí xīn wén yīng chéng gōng zhǒng chū rì běn wǎng wén . . .

The wasteland has been transformed into a hydroponic farm, and Ji Xin Wenying has successfully planted Japanese reticulation...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...集团李亮:炒作“字节是恒科的最大空头”很荒唐也..

. . . jí tuán lǐ liàng : chǎo zuò zì jié shì héng kē de zuì dà kōng tóu hěn huāng táng yě . .

... Group Li Liang: The hype that "Byte is Hengke's biggest bear" is ridiculous.

Tatoeba

她们被抛弃在一座荒岛上。

Tāmen bèi pāoqì zài yī zuò huāngdǎo shàng.

They were marooned on a desert isle.

Tatoeba

这种荒谬的迷信已不复存在了。

Zhèzhǒng huāngmiù de míxìn yǐ bù fù cúnzài le.

Such a ridiculous superstition no longer exists.

Tatoeba

花光他们所有的钱会很荒谬。

Huāguāng tāmen suǒyǒu de qián huì hěn huāngmiù.

It would be ridiculous to spend all their money.

Tatoeba

这一切在我看来都颇为荒唐。

Zhè yīqiè zàiwǒkànlái dōu pōwéi huāngtáng.

I think that this is all quite absurd.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced huāng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 荒 (huāng) mean in Chinese?
荒 (huāng) primarily means "desolate." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1320 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 荒 and 顺?
荒 (huāng) and 顺 (shùn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 页 (same 川 component).
How many strokes does 荒 have?
荒 is written with 9 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 荒?
The radical associated with 荒 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 荒?
荒 is composed of: 芒 (semantic), 川 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱芒川 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 荒?
Common words with 荒 include: 荒谬 (huāng miù, "absurd"); 荒唐 (huāng táng, "beyond belief"); 荒野 (huāng yě, "wilderness"); 饥荒 (jī huāng, "crop failure"); 荒诞 (huāng dàn, "beyond belief"). There are over 69 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 荒 (huāng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation huāng: 黄 (yellow), 皇 (emperor), 慌 (to get panicky), 谎 (lies), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 荒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 荒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 荒 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.