怒 (nù): anger, fury, flourishing

怒 (nù) is a Chinese character meaning “anger.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 奴 (phonetic) and 心 (semantic). It ranks #1141 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 怒 heart. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 6Radical: 忄 heart9 strokesFrequency #1141奴 phonetic心 semantic

Definitions

  1. anger
  2. fury
  3. flourishing

Etymology & Origin

怒

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿱奴心 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:奴phonetic心semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 怒

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
愤怒adjectivefèn nùangry6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
激怒verbjī nùto infuriate
怒火nounnù huǒrage
怒气nounnù qìanger
发怒verbfā nùto get angry
狂怒verbkuáng nùfurious
暴怒verbbào nùto fly into a rage
怒吼verbnù hǒuto bellow
恼怒verbnǎo nùresentful
怒气冲冲nù qì chōng chōng(idiom) spitting anger
迁怒verbqiān nùto take one's anger out on sb (who does not deserve it)
怒不可遏phrasenù bù kě èunable to restrain one's anger (idiom)
触怒verbchù nùto anger sb
震怒verbzhèn nùto be furious
动怒verbdòng nùto get angry
恼羞成怒phrasenǎo xiū chéng nù(idiom) to become enraged over a perceived humiliation
67
Total compounds
43
As first character
37
As last character
19
As middle character

怒 appears in 67 compound words: 43 as the first character, 37 as the last, and 19 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 怒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

愤fèn
0.7128,808 co-occurrences
吼hǒu
0.5841,173 co-occurrences
恼nǎo
0.566746 co-occurrences
激jī
0.5396,052 co-occurrences
趁chèn
0.53219 co-occurrences
轰hōng
0.52144 co-occurrences
劫jié
0.52019 co-occurrences
遏è
0.495585 co-occurrences
羞xiū
0.490824 co-occurrences
斥chì
0.4871,382 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (18)

勃然大怒bórándànùHSK 7+

to burst into anger; to fly into a rage

phrase
横眉怒目héng méi nù mùHSK 6+

lit. furrowed brows and blazing eyes; to dart looks of hate at sb (idiom)

phrase
金刚怒目jīn gāng nù mùHSK 6+

(idiom) to have a face as terrifying as a temple's guardian deity

phrase
老羞成怒lǎoxiūchéngnùHSK 6+

to become angry out of embarrassment

phrase
恼羞成怒nǎoxiūchéngnùHSK 6+

to become angry out of embarrassment

phrase
怒不可遏nùbùkě'èHSK 7+

unable to contain one's anger; cannot restrain one's fury; be in a towering rage

phrase
怒发冲冠nùfàchōngguānHSK 6+

to be furious

phrase
怒目而视nùmù'érshìHSK 6+

to glare at; to stare at angrily

phrase
怒目切齿nù mù qiè chǐHSK 6+

to gnash one's teeth in anger

phrase
怒目相向nù mù xiāng xiàngHSK 6+

to glower at each other (idiom)

phrase
怒气冲冲nù qì chōng chōngHSK 6+

(idiom) spitting anger; in a rage

phrase
怒气攻心nù qì gōng xīnHSK 6+

(TCM) sudden strong emotions attacking the heart, leading to faints etc; (fig.) to fly into a fit of anger

phrase

Showing 12 of 18 idioms containing 怒.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这件事让我怒烦意乱，整夜都没有睡好。

zhè jiàn shì ràng wǒ nù fán yì luàn , zhěng yè dū méi yǒu shuì hǎo .

This incident left me furious and distraught, and I couldn't sleep a wink all night.

中時新聞網Feb 2026

视帝真田广之怒吼“给我过来!”浅野忠信回归决一死战

shì dì zhēn tián guǎng zhī nù hǒu gěi wǒ guò lái ! qiǎn yě zhōng xìn huí guī jué yī sǐ zhàn

Emperor Sanada Hiroyuki roared, "Come over to me!" Tadanobu Asano returns to fight to the death

LtnFeb 2026

酒局洗脸球星尪 刘雨柔暴怒:孩子不是我一人

jiǔ jú xǐ liǎn qiú xīng 尪 liú yǔ róu bào nù : hái zǐ bù shì wǒ yī rén

Liu Yurou was furious: I am not the only child in the country

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

长和巴拿马港口将被接管 港怒批巴拿马自毁信用

cháng hé bā ná mǎ gǎng kǒu jiāng bèi jiē guǎn gǎng nù pī bā ná mǎ zì huǐ xìn yòng

Changhe Panama port will be taken over Hong Kong angrily criticized Panama for self-destructing credit

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

拖吊10公里要10万!蒋万安怒轰“趁火打劫” 指示局处严查恶霸行为

tuō diào 1 0 gōng lǐ yāo 1 0 wàn ! 蒋 wàn ān nù hōng chèn huǒ dǎ jié zhǐ shì jú chǔ yán chá è bà háng wéi

Towing 10 kilometers costs 100,000 yuan! Jiang Wan'an angrily bombarded the bureau to "rob while the fire is in the fire" and instructed the bureau to strictly investigate the behavior of bullies

Tatoeba

我们听到远处老虎的怒吼。

Wǒmen tīngdào yuǎnchù lǎohǔ de nùhǒu.

We heard tigers roaring in the distance.

Tatoeba

我无法压抑心中的怒火。

Wǒ wúfǎ yāyì xīnzhōng de nùhuǒ.

I couldn't keep my anger down.

Tatoeba

当我忘记约定时，他十分愤怒。

Dāng wǒ wàngjì yuēdìng shí, tā shífēn fènnù.

When I forgot my promise, he got really angry.

Tatoeba

即使他道歉了，我还是很愤怒。

Jíshǐ tā dàoqiàn le, wǒ háishi hěn fènnù.

Even though he apologized, I'm still furious.

Tatoeba

总理的发言估计激怒了在野党。

Zǒnglǐ de fāyán gūjì jīnù le zàiyědǎng.

The Prime Minister's speech was calculated to anger the opposition parties.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 心 (heart) component

想xiǎng意yì怎zěn德dé愿yuàn态tài急jí恶è恐kǒng忘wàng

Related Characters

忙máng快kuài怎zěn息xī您nín慢màn必bì忽hū态tài怕pà

Homophones — Characters pronounced nù

努nǔ奴nú

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 怒 (nù) mean in Chinese?
怒 (nù) primarily means "anger." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1141 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 怒 have?
怒 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 怒?
The radical associated with 怒 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 怒?
怒 is composed of: 奴 (phonetic), 心 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱奴心 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 怒?
Common words with 怒 include: 愤怒 (fèn nù, "angry"); 激怒 (jī nù, "to infuriate"); 怒火 (nù huǒ, "rage"); 怒气 (nù qì, "anger"); 发怒 (fā nù, "to get angry"). There are over 67 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 怒 (nù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation nù: 努 (to exert), 奴 (slave). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 怒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 怒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.