怨 (yuàn): to blame, (bound form) resentment, hatred, grudge

怨 (yuàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to blame.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 夗 (phonetic) and 心 (semantic). It ranks #1626 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 怨 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 blame
  2. (bound form) resentment
  3. hatred
  4. grudge

Etymology & Origin

怨

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿱夗心 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 怨

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
抱怨verbbào yuànto complain5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
恩怨nounēn yuàngratitude and grudges
怨恨nounyuàn hènto resent
埋怨verbmán yuànto complain
怨言nounyuàn yáncomplaint
怨气nounyuàn qìgrievance
无怨无悔wú yuàn wú huǐno complaints
怨天尤人phraseyuàn tiān yóu rén(idiom) to blame the gods and accuse others
宿怨nounsù yuànan old grudge
积怨nounjī yuàngrievance
哀怨nounāi yuàngrief
任劳任怨rèn láo rèn yuànto work hard without complaint (idiom)
怨声载道phraseyuàn shēng zài dàolit. cries of complaint fill the roads (idiom)
结怨verbjié yuànto arouse dislike
幽怨nounyōu yuànhidden bitterness
仇怨nounchóu yuànhatred and desire for revenge
51
Total compounds
43
As first character
43
As last character
14
As middle character

怨 appears in 51 compound words: 43 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 14 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 怨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

抱bào
0.7017,644 co-occurrences
恨hèn
0.6875,692 co-occurrences
埋mái
0.490857 co-occurrences
仇chóu
0.472956 co-occurrences
沸fèi
0.456214 co-occurrences
悔huǐ
0.435322 co-occurrences
恩ēn
0.4293,226 co-occurrences
愤fèn
0.419186 co-occurrences
哀āi
0.408324 co-occurrences
闺guī
0.40042 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

东征西怨dōng zhēng xī yuànHSK 5+

war on all sides (idiom); fighting from all four quarters

phrase
埋天怨地mán tiān yuàn dìHSK 6+

lit. to blame the heavens and reproach the earth; fig. to rave and rant

phrase
民怨沸腾mín yuàn fèi téngHSK 7+

seething discontent (idiom); popular grievances boil over

phrase
任劳任怨rèn láo rèn yuànHSK 5+

to work hard without complaint (idiom)

phrase
无怨无悔wú yuàn wú huǐHSK 5+

no complaints; to have no regrets

phrase
以德报怨yǐdébàoyuànHSK 6+

to return good for evil; to return kindness for injury

phrase
怨气冲天yuàn qì chōng tiānHSK 5+

(idiom) extremely resentful

phrase
怨声载道yuànshēngzàidàoHSK 5+

public discontent is everywhere; discontent is publicly voiced; complaints rise all around

phrase
怨天尤人yuàntiān-yóurénHSK 5+

to blame god and man; to blame everyone and everything but oneself

phrase
自怨自艾zìyuànzìyìHSK 7+

to be full of remorse and self-reproach

phrase
柳啼花怨liǔ tí huā yuànHSK 7+

desolate

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他怨甘情愿地帮助每一个需要帮助的人。

tā yuàn gān qíng yuàn dì bāng zhù měi yī gě xū yāo bāng zhù de rén .

He willingly helps everyone in need.

Am730Mar 2026

...油价格飊涨 曼谷多个油站无油卖或限购惹民怨

. . . yóu jià gé 飊 zhǎng 曼 gǔ duō gè yóu zhàn wú yóu mài huò xiàn gòu rě mín yuàn

...With oil prices soaring, many gas stations in Bangkok have run out of fuel or are imposing purchase limits, sparking public outrage

EttodayMar 2026

儿怨球被踢飞!家长暴怒冲回校“掐脖呛单挑” ...

ér yuàn qiú bèi tī fēi ! jiā cháng bào nù chōng huí jiào qiā bó qiàng dān tiāo . . .

Boy complains ball was kicked away! Enraged parent storms back to school, grabs him by the throat and challenges him to a fight...

EttodayMar 2026

刘朴旧疾复发“抱怨陈大天装死” 委屈泪喊:谁来理解我

liú pǔ jiù jí fù fā bào yuàn chén dà tiān zhuāng sǐ wěi qū lèi hǎn : shéi lái lǐ jiě wǒ

Liu Pu’s old ailment flares up; he “complains that Chen Datian is playing dead” and cries out in frustration: “Who will understand me?”

Intimes NewsFeb 2026

...ee As2”四足机械人 上山下海任劳任怨

. . . e e A s 2 sì zú jī xiè rén shàng shān xià hǎi rèn láo rèn yuàn

... ee AS2 "four-legged robot works hard and complains about going up the mountain and down to the sea

東森新聞Feb 2026

输不起?客怨飞镖全射中 老板才喊不能混色

shū bù qǐ ? kè yuàn fēi 镖 quán shè zhōng lǎo bǎn cái hǎn bù néng hùn sè

Can't afford to lose? The guest complained that the darts were all shot, and the boss shouted that he couldn't mix colors

Tatoeba

我厌倦了她的抱怨。

Wǒ yànjuàn le tā de bàoyuàn.

I'm tired of her complaints.

Tatoeba

汤姆一定会抱怨的。

Tāngmǔ yīdìng huì bàoyuàn de.

Tom's sure to complain.

Tatoeba

他一直抱怨他的房间很小。

Tā yīzhí bàoyuàn tā de fángjiān hěn xiǎo.

He is always complaining of his room being small.

Tatoeba

他的埋怨没有尽头。

Tā de mányuàn méiyǒu jìntóu.

There is no end to his complaining.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 心 (heart) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced yuàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 怨 (yuàn) mean in Chinese?
怨 (yuàn) primarily means "to blame." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1626 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 怨 and 宛?
怨 (yuàn) and 宛 (wǎn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 忄 vs 宀 (same 夗 component).
How many strokes does 怨 have?
怨 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 怨?
The radical associated with 怨 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 怨?
怨 is composed of: 夗 (phonetic), 心 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱夗心 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 怨?
Common words with 怨 include: 抱怨 (bào yuàn, "to complain"); 恩怨 (ēn yuàn, "gratitude and grudges"); 怨恨 (yuàn hèn, "to resent"); 埋怨 (mán yuàn, "to complain"); 怨言 (yuàn yán, "complaint"). There are over 51 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 怨 (yuàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yuàn: 原 (former), 员 (member, staff), 远 (far), 院 (courtyard), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 怨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 怨 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 怨 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.