枉 (wǎng): to twist, crooked, unjust

枉 (wǎng) is a Chinese character meaning “to twist.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 王 (phonetic). It ranks #2701 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 枉 wood. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 木 tree8 strokesFrequency #2701木 semantic王 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to twist
  2. crooked
  3. unjust

Etymology & Origin

枉

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木王 (layout: left-right)

Components:木semantic王phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
冤枉yuān wangto accuse wrongly
矫枉过正jiǎo wǎng guò zhèngto overcorrect (idiom)
贪赃枉法tān zāng wǎng fǎcorruption and abuse of the law (idiom)
枉然wǎng ránin vain
徇私枉法xùn sī wǎng fǎto bend the law in order to favor one's relatives or associates (idiom)
有仇不报非君子，有冤不伸枉为人yǒu chóu bù bào fēi jūn zǐ , yǒu yuān bù shēn wǎng wéi rénone who doesn't avenge an injustice is not a gentleman, one who doesn't redress a wrong is not a man (idiom)
徇情枉法xùn qíng wǎng fǎsee 徇私枉法[xun4 si1 wang3 fa3]
不枉bù wǎngnot in vain
枉法wǎng fǎto circumvent the law
矫枉过直jiǎo wǎng guò zhísee 矯枉過正|矫枉过正[jiao3 wang3 guo4 zheng4]
枉死wǎng sǐto die in tragic circumstances
枉费wǎng fèito waste (one's breath, one's energy etc)
枉顾wǎng gùto neglect
枉劳wǎng láoto work in vain
冤枉路yuān wang lùpointless trip
18
Total compounds
44
As first character
11
As last character
44
As middle character

枉 appears in 18 compound words: 44 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 44 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 枉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

冤yuān
0.7304,644 co-occurrences
矫jiǎo
0.587408 co-occurrences
赃zāng
0.582360 co-occurrences
贪tān
0.502390 co-occurrences
诬wū
0.41166 co-occurrences
辜gū
0.407108 co-occurrences
勿wù
0.406126 co-occurrences
滥làn
0.40184 co-occurrences
私sī
0.395636 co-occurrences
眉méi
0.391138 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

矫枉过正jiǎowǎngguòzhèngHSK 7+

to overcorrect; to hypercorrect; to overcompensate

phrase
矫枉过直jiǎo wǎng guò zhíHSK 7+

see 矯枉過正|矫枉过正[jiao3 wang3 guo4 zheng4]

phrase
贪赃枉法tānzāngwǎngfǎHSK 7+

to take bribes and break the law

phrase
徇情枉法xùn qíng wǎng fǎHSK 7+

see 徇私枉法[xun4 si1 wang3 fa3]

phrase
徇私枉法xùnsīwǎngfǎHSK 7+

to bend the law for selfish ends

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

春天来了，院子里的枉木开始发芽抽枝。

chūn tiān lái le , yuàn zǐ lǐ de wǎng mù kāi shǐ fā yá chōu zhī .

Spring has arrived, and the wisteria in the courtyard has begun to sprout and branch out.

Character Family

木 Radical Family — Characters sharing the tree radical

案àn柏bǎi板bǎn棒bàng杯bēi标biāo柄bǐng材cái槽cáo柴chái

Related Characters

本běn机jī条tiáo来lái杯bēi果guǒ树shù校jiào样yàng桌zhuō

Homophones — Characters pronounced wǎng

汪wāng往wǎng旺wàng亡wáng王wáng网wǎng妄wàng忘wàng望wàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 枉 (wǎng) mean in Chinese?
枉 (wǎng) primarily means "to twist." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2701 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 枉 and 狂?
枉 (wǎng) and 狂 (kuáng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 犭 (same 王 component).
How many strokes does 枉 have?
枉 is written with 8 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 枉?
The radical associated with 枉 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 枉?
枉 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 王 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木王 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 枉?
Common words with 枉 include: 冤枉 (yuān wang, "to accuse wrongly"); 矫枉过正 (jiǎo wǎng guò zhèng, "to overcorrect (idiom)"); 贪赃枉法 (tān zāng wǎng fǎ, "corruption and abuse of the law (idiom)"); 枉然 (wǎng rán, "in vain"); 徇私枉法 (xùn sī wǎng fǎ, "to bend the law in order to favor one's relatives or associates (idiom)"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 枉 (wǎng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wǎng: 汪 (expanse of water), 往 (to go (in a direction)), 旺 (prosperous), 亡 (to die), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 枉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 枉 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.