孱弱

chánruò
adjective #32,315

Meanings

  1. 1 frail
  2. 2 delicate
  3. 3 weak (in body or strength)

Examples

Tā cóngxiǎo shēntǐ chánruò.
He's been frail since childhood.
Chánruò de zhèngfǔ wúlì yìngduì wēijī.
A weak government has no power to handle the crisis.

Tips

register
Literary/written register. Stronger and more vivid than plain — implies fragility from constitution rather than circumstance. Used both for people (sickly bodies) and abstract things (weak forces, feeble economies).
memory
(chán) on its own already means 'weak/feeble'. Doubling the meaning with (ruò, also 'weak') intensifies the sense — the same pattern as 强壮 'strong-robust'.

Stroke Order

chán
ruò