(yuān): injustice, grievance, wrong

(yuān) is a Chinese character meaning “injustice.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2322 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. injustice
  2. grievance
  3. wrong

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
yuān wangto accuse wrongly
yuān jiaenemy
yuān ànmiscarriage of justice
yuān húnghost of one who died unjustly
yuān dà tóuspendthrift and foolish
yuān qūto treat unjustly
hán yuānwronged
yuān jiā duì tóuenemy (idiom)
bù bái zhī yuānunrighted wrong
méng yuānto be wronged
yuān qíngfacts of an injustice
hǎn yuānto cry out a grievance
yuān yùunjust charge or verdict
xǐ yuānto right a wrong
shēn yuānto appeal for justice
43
Total compounds
63
As first character
23
As last character
14
As middle character

appears in 43 compound words: 63 as the first character, 23 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

wǎng
0.7304,644 co-occurrences
0.5362,670 co-occurrences
hún
0.4882,442 co-occurrences
hǎn
0.483962 co-occurrences
0.4751,512 co-occurrences
àn
0.4556,936 co-occurrences
qiào
0.453258 co-occurrences
0.4491,536 co-occurrences
cuò
0.4381,086 co-occurrences
0.4343,510 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

bùbáizhīyuānHSK 7+

miscarriage of justice which remains uncorrected; unredressed grievance

phrase
huān xǐ yuān jiaHSK 7+

quarrelsome but loving couple

phrase
míng yuān jiào qūHSK 7+

to complain bitterly

phrase
yuān jiā duì tóuHSK 7+

enemy (idiom); opponent; arch-enemy

phrase
yuānjiālùzhǎiHSK 7+

much as one wants to, one cannot avoid one's enemy

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

yuān zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "冤" has different usages in different contexts.

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

...圾话领第16次T!吞禁赛1场 湖人教头喊:我们会申诉

. . . jī huà lǐng dì 1 6 cì T ! tūn jīn sài 1 chǎng hú rén jiào tóu hǎn yuān : wǒ men huì shēn sù

...Jia Hua was handed a one-game suspension for his 16th technical foul! Lakers coach protests the decision: "We will appeal."

EttodayMar 2026

晚安小鸡满脸胡子遭酸装可怜 喊揭原因

wǎn ān xiǎo jī mǎn liǎn hú zǐ zāo suān zhuāng kě lián hǎn yuān jiē yuán yīn

Good Night, Little Chicken: Mocked for His Full Face of Beard, He Plays the Victim and Pleads Innocence, Revealing the Reason

中時新聞網Feb 2026

“不是故意”也没用? 骑士喊提告!方向灯坏了照样罚

bù shì gù yì yě méi yòng ? qí shì hǎn yuān tí gào ! fāng xiàng dēng huài le zhào yàng fá

"Not intentionally" is useless? The knight shouted injustice and sued! If the turn signal is broken, it will still be punished

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...过失迳行离去 挨罚吊照终身不得考照提告喊

. . . guò shī 迳 háng lí qù āi fá diào zhào zhōng shēn bù dé kǎo zhào tí gào hǎn yuān

... Negligence and leaving, punishment, suspension of license, prohibition of examination for life, and complaint for grievances

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...吃Karina豆腐!被目击揉她手指 亲喊:我手痒

. . . chī K a r i n a dòu fǔ ! bèi mù jī róu tā shǒu zhǐ qīn hǎn yuān : wǒ shǒu yǎng

... Eat Karina Tofu! was witnessed rubbing her fingers and shouting injustice: My hands itch

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the cover radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced yuān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 冤 (yuān) mean in Chinese?
冤 (yuān) primarily means "injustice." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2322 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 冤 and 正?
冤 (yuān) and 正 (zhèng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 冤 (wrong) vs 正 (correct).
How many strokes does 冤 have?
冤 is written with 10 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 冤?
The radical associated with 冤 is 冖 (cover). This radical appears in many characters related to cover.
What are the components of 冤?
冤 is composed of: 冖 (structural), 兔 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱冖兔 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 冤?
Common words with 冤 include: 冤枉 (yuān wang, "to accuse wrongly"); 冤家 (yuān jia, "enemy"); 冤案 (yuān àn, "miscarriage of justice"); 冤魂 (yuān hún, "ghost of one who died unjustly"); 冤大头 (yuān dà tóu, "spendthrift and foolish"). There are over 43 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 冤 (yuān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yuān: 元 (Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)), 员 (member, staff), 园 (land used for growing plants), 原 (former), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 冤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 冤 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.