惋 (wǎn): to sigh in regret or pity

惋 (wǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to sigh in regret or pity.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 忄 (semantic) and 宛 (phonetic). It ranks #2941 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 惋 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

Definitions

  1. to sigh in regret or pity

Etymology & Origin

惋

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿰忄宛 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
惋惜verbwǎn xīto regret
凄惋qī wǎndoleful
2
Total compounds
50
As first character
50
As last character
0
As middle character

惋 appears in 2 compound words: 50 as the first character, 50 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 惋 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

惜xī
0.7151,439 co-occurrences
叹tàn
0.50735 co-occurrences
凄qī
0.49118 co-occurrences
哀āi
0.45980 co-occurrences
感gǎn
0.439386 co-occurrences
愤fèn
0.43530 co-occurrences
悼dào
0.41436 co-occurrences
悲bēi
0.39946 co-occurrences
漆qī
0.38922 co-occurrences
痛tòng
0.38150 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这件事让我惋烦意乱,整夜都没有睡好。

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

This matter has left me troubled and restless, unable to sleep well all night.

爱范儿Aug 2026

消息一出,引发了大量玩家与实体发行商的惋惜与不满。

xiāo xī yī chū , yǐn fā le dà liàng wán jiā yǔ shí tǐ fā háng shāng de wǎn xī yǔ bù mǎn .

As soon as the news broke, it sparked widespread regret and dissatisfaction among players and physical retailers.

少数派Aug 2026

而这份叹惋的心情,也导致了很多人虽然无法理解石神的选择,但依然对他产生同情。

ér zhè fèn tàn wǎn de xīn qíng , yě dǎo zhì le hěn duō rén suī rán wú fǎ lǐ jiě shí shén de xuǎn zé , dàn yī rán duì tā chǎn shēng tóng qíng .

And this sense of regret has led many people—even though they cannot understand Ishigami’s choice—to still feel sympathy for him.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

不少球迷仍留在场内交流,对球队出局表示惋惜。

bù shǎo qiú mí réng liú zài chǎng nèi jiāo liú , duì qiú duì chū jú biǎo shì wǎn xī .

Many fans remained in the stadium, chatting with one another and expressing regret over the team's elimination.

東方日報Mar 2026

正论:杀校固然惋惜 但宜面对现实

zhèng lùn : shā jiào gù rán wǎn xī dàn yí miàn duì xiàn shí

Straight Talk: While the closure of the school is regrettable, we must face reality

Hk01.comFeb 2026

财政预算案| 幻彩咏香江将成历史 市民叹惋惜冀增元素后保留

cái zhèng yù suàn àn huàn cǎi yǒng xiāng jiāng jiāng chéng lì shǐ shì mín tàn wǎn xī 冀 zēng yuán sù hòu bǎo liú

Budget | The Symphony of Lights will become history, and the public sighs and hopes to retain the elements after adding them

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 忄 (heart) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced wǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 惋 (wǎn) mean in Chinese?
惋 (wǎn) primarily means "to sigh in regret or pity." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2941 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 惋 have?
惋 is written with 11 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 惋?
The radical associated with 惋 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 惋?
惋 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), 宛 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄宛 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 惋?
Common words with 惋 include: 惋惜 (wǎn xī, "to regret"); 凄惋 (qī wǎn, "doleful"). There are over 2 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 惋 (wǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wǎn: 碗 (bowl), 婉 (graceful), 完 (to finish), 晚 (late, evening), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 惋 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 惋 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 惋 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.