横 (héng) · horizontal; across; sideways; transverse

Meanings

1 horizontal; across; sideways; transverse
2 horizontal stroke (in Chinese characters)
3 to place flat; to lay across
4 in disorder; chaotic; criss-crossed

Characters

横

héng

horizontal; across; sideways

Examples

HSK 2

请横着写你的名字。

Qǐng héng zhe xiě nǐ de míngzi.

Please write your name horizontally.

HSK 4

一条河横在眼前。

Yī tiáo hé héng zài yǎnqián.

A river lies across before our eyes.

HSK 6

中文可以横写也可以竖写。

Zhōngwén kěyǐ héng xiě yě kěyǐ shù xiě.

Chinese can be written horizontally or vertically.

Tips

usage

Default reading héng covers all the spatial 'horizontal / across' senses. Pair with 竖 (vertical) - they form the basic orientation pair. In calligraphy 横 is also the name of the horizontal stroke. Showpiece compounds: 横向 (lateral), 横穿 (traverse), 横扫 (sweep across), 纵横 (criss-cross), 横幅 (banner).

register

A second reading 横 (fourth tone) is the moral / fortune word - 'harsh, unreasonable, perverse' or 'unexpected (calamity)'. Locked to fixed expressions: 蛮横 (overbearing), 专横 (imperious), 横财 (ill-gotten windfall), 横祸 (sudden disaster), 飞来横祸 (a calamity from out of nowhere). Default to héng for spatial senses; use hèng when the meaning is about violence, unreasonableness, or undeserved fortune.

Components

radical

木 mù

wood; tree

Tree radical on the left - also 横's indexing radical. Direct semantic anchor: a 横 was originally a horizontal wooden bar (a door-bolt or crosspiece). From the literal beam-laid-flat came the abstract senses 'horizontal, sideways, unreasonable.' Same radical family as 板, 桌, 杆 - wooden bars and boards.

phonetic

黄 huáng

yellow

Right side 黄 supplies the sound: huáng → héng with vowel shift. The same 黄 phonetic appears in 横, 璜, 簧 - most readings stay in the huáng/héng cluster. No semantic contribution from 'yellow'; the role is purely sound.