(yāng): center, end, to beg

(yāng) is a Chinese character meaning “center.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #800 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. center
  2. end
  3. to beg

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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
nounzhōng yāngcentral6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yāng qiúto implore
zhōng yāng jí quáncentralized state power
yāng hángcentral bank (abbr. for 中央銀行|中央银行[zhong1 yang1 yin2 hang2])
zhōng yāng wěi yuán huìCentral Committee
dǎng zhōng yāngCentral Committee of the CCP
zhōng yāng chǔ lǐ jī(computing) central processing unit (CPU)
zhōng yāng quán huìplenary session of the Central Committee
zhōng guó zhōng yāng diàn shì táiChina Central Television (CCTV), PRC state TV network
zhōng yāng jūn shì wěi yuán huì(PRC) Central Military Commission
zhōng yāng cái jīng dà xuéCentral University of Finance and Economics, Beijing
zhōng guó gòng chǎn dǎng zhōng yāng wěi yuán huìCentral Committee of the Communist Party of China, abbr. to 中共中央[Zhong1 Gong4 Zhong1 yang1]
zhōng yāng fēn chē dàimedian strip
zhōng yāng mín zú dà xuéCentral University for Nationalities
zhōng guó gòng chǎn dǎng zhōng yāng wěi yuán huì xuān chuán bùPropaganda Department of the Communist Party of China
zhōng yāng chǔ lǐ dān yuán(computing) central processing unit (CPU)
60
Total compounds
17
As first character
12
As last character
72
As middle character

appears in 60 compound words: 17 as the first character, 12 as the last, and 72 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.

0.69411 co-occurrences
zhōng
0.6871,382,802 co-occurrences
wěi
0.570198,291 co-occurrences
gòng
0.504143,808 co-occurrences
0.46976,932 co-occurrences
dǎng
0.46348,630 co-occurrences
shì
0.45146,656 co-occurrences
jiè
0.44623,738 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.430117,672 co-occurrences
yuán
0.41661,920 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

cháng lè wèi yāngHSK 6+

endless happiness (idiom)

phrase
zhōngyāng jíquánHSK 6+

centralised state power

noun
Zhōngyāng JūnwěiHSK 6+

short for 中央軍事委員會/中央军事委员会 (Zhōngyāng Jūnshì Wěiyuánhuì, “Central Military Commission”)

zhōngyāng yínhángHSK 6+

central bank

noun
zhōngyāng zhèngfǔHSK 6+

central government

noun

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě yāng zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "央" had different meanings in classical Chinese.

Vietnam+Feb 2026

越共中总书记苏林特使会见俄罗斯总统并与俄外长举...

yuè gòng zhōng yāng zǒng shū jì sū lín tè shǐ huì jiàn é luó sī zǒng tǒng bìng yǔ é wài cháng jǔ . . .

Special Envoy Su Linh, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, met with the President of Russia and the Russian Foreign Minister...

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

A股头条:行今日开展6000亿元MLF操作,连续1...

A gǔ tóu tiáo : yāng háng jīn rì kāi zhǎn 6 0 0 0 yì yuán M L F cāo zuò , lián xù 1 . . .

A-share headlines: The central bank carried out 600 billion yuan of MLF operations today, 1 consecutive...

InvestingFeb 2026

【早报】6000亿元!行今日操作;Meta与AMD达成600亿...

zǎo bào 6 0 0 0 yì yuán ! yāng háng jīn rì cāo zuò ; M e t a yǔ A M D dá chéng 6 0 0 yì . . .

【Morning Post】600 billion yuan! The central bank operates today; Meta and AMD reached 60 billion...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

圆汇突挫1% 传高市早苗上周与日行行长会面时对加息表示担忧

yuán huì tū cuò 1 chuán gāo shì zǎo miáo shàng zhōu yǔ rì yāng háng háng cháng huì miàn shí duì jiā xī biǎo shì dān yōu

The yen fell sharply by 1% and Sanae expressed concern about interest rate hikes during a meeting with the governor of the Bank of Japan last week

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

行为何此时大举抛售黄金?30万盎司减持背...

é yāng háng wéi hé cǐ shí dà jǔ pāo shòu huáng jīn ? 3 0 wàn 盎 sī jiǎn chí bèi . . .

Why is the Bank of Russia selling gold at this time? 300,000 ounces to reduce holdings...

Tatoeba

堪萨斯州刚好位于美国的中

Kānsàsīzhōu gānghǎo wèiyú Měiguó de zhōngyāng.

Kansas is smack dab in the middle of the US.

Tatoeba

公园在哪个方向?

Zhōngyāng gōngyuán zài nǎge fāngxiàng?

Which way is Central Park?

Tatoeba

这栋楼里面有中暖气系统吗?

Zhè dòng lóu lǐmiàn yǒu zhōngyāng nuǎnqì xìtǒng ma?

Is there central heating in this building?

Tatoeba

你知道中情报局的什么?

Nǐ zhīdào Zhōngyāng Qíngbàojú de shénme?

What do you know about the CIA?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yāng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 央 (yāng) mean in Chinese?
央 (yāng) primarily means "center." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #800 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 央 and 始?
央 (yāng) and 始 (shǐ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 央 (end) vs 始 (begin).
How many strokes does 央 have?
央 is written with 5 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 央?
The radical associated with 央 is 大 (big). This radical appears in many characters related to big.
What are the components of 央?
央 is composed of: 冂 (structural), 大 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻冂大 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 央?
Common words with 央 include: 中央 (zhōng yāng, "central"); 央求 (yāng qiú, "to implore"); 中央集权 (zhōng yāng jí quán, "centralized state power"); 央行 (yāng háng, "central bank (abbr. for 中央銀行|中央银行[zhong1 yang1 yin2 hang2])"); 中央委员会 (zhōng yāng wěi yuán huì, "Central Committee"). There are over 60 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 央 (yāng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yāng: 殃 (calamity), 秧 (sapling), 扬 (abbr. for Yangzhou 揚州|扬州 in Jiangsu), 羊 (sheep), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 央 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 央 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.