(yāng): calamity

(yāng) is a Chinese character meaning “calamity.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2936 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, death. Its radical form (death) appears in many related characters such as (, to die), (shū, (literary) to kill), (cán, to destroy).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. calamity

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticdeath

Decomposition: ⿰歹央 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zāo yāngto suffer a calamity
yāng jíto bring disaster to
bìng yāng yānglooking or feeling sickly
dé bù pèi wèi , bì yǒu zāi yāngcalamity will befall those whose moral standards are not in keeping with their social status
bìng guó yāng mínto damage the country and cause suffering to the people (idiom)
chéng mén shī huǒ , yāng jí chí yúa fire in the city gates is also a calamity for the fish in the moat (idiom)
huò guó yāng mínto damage the country and cause suffering to the people (idiom)
jī è yú yāngAccumulated evil will be repaid in suffering (idiom).
bìng bing yāng yāngseriously ill
zāi yāngdisaster
10
Total compounds
10
As first character
40
As last character
50
As middle character

appears in 10 compound words: 10 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 50 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.

huò
0.557366 co-occurrences
zāo
0.4841,266 co-occurrences
0.43884 co-occurrences
zāi
0.400132 co-occurrences
chí
0.389252 co-occurrences
zòng
0.388108 co-occurrences
zhū
0.35748 co-occurrences
0.3531,308 co-occurrences
mín
0.3531,098 co-occurrences
fěi
0.33330 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

bìngbing-yāngyāngHSK 7+

looking or feeling sickly

adjective
bìng guó yāng mínHSK 7+

to damage the country and cause suffering to the people (idiom)

phrase
huòguóyāngmínHSK 7+

to bring disaster to both the country and the people

phrase
jī è yú yāngHSK 7+

Accumulated evil will be repaid in suffering (idiom).

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí yāng zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "殃" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

東方日報Mar 2026

...报世界视线】战争持续油价升 美国经济势遭

. . . bào shì jiè shì xiàn zhàn zhēng chí xù yóu jià shēng měi guó jīng jì shì zāo yāng

...World View] As the War Rages On, Oil Prices Rise, and the U.S. Economy Is Set to Suffer

EttodayMar 2026

孕期碰毒母婴遭!怀孕药瘾女性新增医疗补助 守护母婴健康

yùn qī pèng dú mǔ yīng zāo yāng ! huái yùn yào yǐn nǚ xìng xīn zēng yī liáo bǔ zhù shǒu hù mǔ yīng jiàn kāng

Exposure to Drugs During Pregnancy Harms Both Mother and Baby! New Medical Assistance for Pregnant Women with Drug Addictions to Protect the Health of Mothers and Babies

LtnMar 2026

...投复康巴士连环撞 路旁15机车、3轿车遭

. . . tóu fù kāng bā shì lián huán zhuàng lù páng 1 5 jī chē , 3 jiào chē zāo yāng

...Rehabilitation bus involved in a chain-reaction collision; 15 motorcycles and 3 cars parked on the side of the road were damaged

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

刚储值5万元就遭!台中医美诊所无预警歇业 桃、竹都有受害...

gāng chǔ zhí 5 wàn yuán jiù zāo yāng ! tái zhōng yī měi zhěn suǒ wú yù jǐng xiē yè táo , zhú dōu yǒu shòu hài . . .

Just topped up my account with 50,000 yuan and got scammed! A medical aesthetics clinic in Taichung closed without warning; victims in Taoyuan and Hsinchu as well...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

影/高雄老轿车发动即起火 邻车无辜遭

yǐng gāo xióng lǎo jiào chē fā dòng jí qǐ huǒ lín chē wú gū zāo yāng

Shadow/Kaohsiung old car caught fire when it started, and the neighboring car suffered innocently

Tatoeba

先下手为强,后下手遭

Xiānxiàshǒuwéiqiáng, hòu xiàshǒu zāoyāng.

Get them before they get us.

Tatoeba

俗话说:人不犯我,我不犯人;可俗话又说:先下手为强,后下手遭!

Súhuàshuō: rén bù fàn wǒ, wǒ bù fànrén; kě súhuà yòu shuō: xiānxiàshǒuwéiqiáng, hòu xiàshǒu zāoyāng!

As the saying goes: As long as you don't offend me, I won't offend you. But there's another saying: To strike first means victory, to strike second means tragedy.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the death radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced yāng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 殃 (yāng) mean in Chinese?
殃 (yāng) primarily means "calamity." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2936 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 殃 and 英?
殃 (yāng) and 英 (yīng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 歹 vs 艹 (same 央 component).
How many strokes does 殃 have?
殃 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 殃?
The radical associated with 殃 is 歹 (death). This radical appears in many characters related to death.
What are the components of 殃?
殃 is composed of: 歹 (semantic), 央 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰歹央 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 殃?
Common words with 殃 include: 遭殃 (zāo yāng, "to suffer a calamity"); 殃及 (yāng jí, "to bring disaster to"); 病殃殃 (bìng yāng yāng, "looking or feeling sickly"); 德不配位,必有灾殃 (dé bù pèi wèi , bì yǒu zāi yāng, "calamity will befall those whose moral standards are not in keeping with their social status"); 病国殃民 (bìng guó yāng mín, "to damage the country and cause suffering to the people (idiom)"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 殃 (yāng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yāng: 秧 (sapling), 央 (center), 扬 (abbr. for Yangzhou 揚州|扬州 in Jiangsu), 羊 (sheep), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 殃 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 殃 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.