(téng): ache

(téng) is a Chinese character meaning “ache.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1695 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, sickness. Its radical form (illness) appears in many related characters such as (, medicine), (bìng, illness), (tòng, pain).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ache

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒冬 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
adjectiveténg tòngpain5
verbxīn téngto love dearly6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tóu téngheadache
téng àito love dearly
shēng téngextremely painful
suān téng(of muscles) to ache
zhàn zhe shuō huà bù yāo téng(saying) it's all very well to talk, but getting things done is another matter
màn xìng téng tòngchronic pain
zhǐ téng piānpainkiller
hǎo le shāng bā wàng le téngto forget past pains once the wound has healed (idiom)
téng sǐto really hurt
zǎi mài yé tián bù xīn ténglit. the child sells the father's farm without regret (idiom)
dàn téng(slang) ball-breaking
piān téngto favor a junior
téng xīto cherish
wèi téngstomachache
shāo zhuó téngburning pain
17
Total compounds
24
As first character
65
As last character
12
As middle character

appears in 17 compound words: 24 as the first character, 65 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

zhǎi
0.78927 co-occurrences
tòng
0.77637,261 co-occurrences
gēn
0.61834 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.51235 co-occurrences
zěn
0.48535 co-occurrences
0.4701,266 co-occurrences
màn
0.4461,758 co-occurrences
0.444948 co-occurrences
hān
0.444180 co-occurrences
rèn
0.442198 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了一晚上,今天早上去看了牙医。

Yáténg le yì wǎnshang, jīntiān zǎoshang qù kàn le yáyī.

My tooth ached all night; I went to see the dentist this morning.

99 健康网Feb 2026

女孩子下面窄到一根手指都是怎么回事?需要心理咨询辅助吗

nǚ hái zǐ xià miàn zhǎi dào yī gēn shǒu zhǐ dōu téng shì zěn má huí shì ? xū yāo xīn lǐ zī xún fǔ zhù ma

What's going on with a girl who is so narrow that a finger hurts? Do you need psychological counseling assistance?

99 健康网Feb 2026

女孩子下面窄到一根手指都是怎么回事?需要做B超检查吗

nǚ hái zǐ xià miàn zhǎi dào yī gēn shǒu zhǐ dōu téng shì zěn má huí shì ? xū yāo zuò B chāo jiǎn chá ma

What's going on with a girl who is so narrow that a finger hurts? Do you need to do an ultrasound examination?

99 健康网Feb 2026

...步失联被找到:用牛粪保温 背后真相令人心

. . . bù shī lián bèi zhǎo dào yòng niú fèn bǎo wēn bèi hòu zhēn xiāng lìng rén xīn téng

Missing Child Found: Kept Warm with Cow Dung—Heartbreaking Truth Revealed

WorldjournalFeb 2026

日本獼猴Panchi讓人心 IKEA賺到廣告 16元玩偶全球賣翻

rì běn 獼 hóu 讓 rén xīn téng 賺 dào 廣 gào yuán wán ǒu quán qiú 賣 fān

The heartbreaking story of Panchi the Japanese macaque IKEA scores free publicity 16-yuan plush toy sells like hotcakes worldwide

三立新聞網Feb 2026

大黃狗遭3樓丟下!肝臟碎裂 民眾救援心

dà 黃 gǒu zāo 樓 丟 xià ! gān 臟 suì liè mín 眾 jiù yuán xīn téng

Yellow dog thrown from 3rd floor! Liver Shattered, Citizen Rescue Heartbreaking

Tatoeba

这里是吗?那是胃痛。

Zhèlǐ téng shì ma? nàshi wèitòng.

The pain is here, right? That's a stomach ache.

Tatoeba

痛令人难以忍受。

Téngtòng lìngrén nányǐrěnshòu.

The pain is unbearable.

Tatoeba

每个母亲都爱自己的孩子。

Měi gè mǔqīn dōu téng'ài zìjǐ de háizi.

Every mother has affection for her child.

Tatoeba

胸口有点儿,所以吃不下饭。

Xiōngkǒu yǒudiǎnr téng, suǒyǐ chībuxià fàn.

My chest hurts a bit, so I am not going to eat.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced téng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 疼 (téng) mean in Chinese?
疼 (téng) primarily means "ache." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1695 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 疼 and 终?
疼 (téng) and 终 (zhōng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 疒 vs 纟 (same 冬 component).
How many strokes does 疼 have?
疼 is written with 10 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 疼?
The radical associated with 疼 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 疼?
疼 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 冬 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒冬 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 疼?
Common words with 疼 include: 疼痛 (téng tòng, "pain"); 头疼 (tóu téng, "headache"); 疼爱 (téng ài, "to love dearly"); 心疼 (xīn téng, "to love dearly"); 生疼 (shēng téng, "extremely painful"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 疼 (téng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation téng: 腾 ((bound form) to gallop), 藤 (rattan). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 疼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 疼 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.