馁 (něi): (bound form) hungry, starving, (bound form) dispirited, (literary) (of fish) putrid
馁 (něi) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) hungry.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 饣 (semantic) and 妥 (phonetic). It ranks #2986 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 馁 food. Its radical form 饣 (eat) appears in many related characters such as 饭 (fàn, meal, rice), 饿 (è, hungry), 馆 (guǎn, restaurant, hall).
Definitions
- (bound form) hungry
- starving
- (bound form) dispirited
- (literary) (of fish) putrid
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 馁 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 气馁verb | qì něi | to be discouraged |
| 胜不骄，败不馁 | shèng bù jiāo , bài bù něi | no arrogance in victory, no despair in defeat |
| 自馁verb | zì něi | to lose confidence |
馁 appears in 3 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 as the last, and 0 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 馁 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Example Sentences
馁堂里的饭菜虽然简单，但很可口。
něi táng lǐ de fàn cài suī rán jiǎn shàn , dàn hěn kě kǒu .
The food in the dining hall was simple but delicious.
一球落后的东莞队并未气馁，掀起潮水般的反扑。
yī qiú luò hòu de dōng guān duì bìng wèi qì něi , xiān qǐ cháo shuǐ bān de fǎn pū .
Trailing by one point, the Dongguan team did not lose heart and launched a relentless counterattack.
虽然在球员时期没有取得过出色成绩，但他并不气馁，因为“踢球就是快乐本身”。
suī rán zài qiú yuán shí qī méi yǒu qǔ dé guò chū sè chéng jì , dàn tā bìng bù qì něi , yīn wéi tī qiú jiù shì kuài lè běn shēn .
Although he didn't achieve outstanding results during his playing career, he didn't let that get him down, because "playing soccer is a joy in itself."
只是对于旁观的其他车企高管而言，这个故事传达的信号令人气馁。
zhī shì duì yú páng guàn de qí tā chē qǐ gāo guǎn ér yán , zhè gè gù shì chuán dá de xìn hào lìng rén qì něi .
However, for executives at other automakers watching from the sidelines, the message conveyed by this story is discouraging.
别气馁，继续写作吧。
Bié qìněi, jìxù xiězuò ba.
Keep a good heart and go on writing.
玛丽告诉我她不气馁。
Mǎlì gàosu wǒ tā bù qìněi.
Mary told me she wasn't discouraged.
Character Family
Homophones — Characters pronounced něi
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 馁 (něi) mean in Chinese?
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What is the radical of 馁?
What are the components of 馁?
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What characters sound the same as 馁 (něi)?
Is 馁 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 馁 with real-time feedback
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