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疒

nè
kangxi radical

Meanings

  1. 1 sickness radical (Kangxi #104)
  2. 2 indexing radical for characters about illness, injury, and disease; nicknamed 病字头 (bìng zì tóu) because it caps 病

Tips

usage
疒 is purely a radical - never written on its own. It tops almost every illness-related character: 病 (sick), 痛 (pain), 疼 (ache), 疯 (mad), 痒 (itch), 瘦 (thin), 疲 (tired), 症 (symptom). Seeing 疒 is a near-guarantee the word relates to the body going wrong.
history
Originally a pictograph of a person lying on a bed, with the bed shown standing on its end. Schemes like Heisig translate it as ‘sickness’; in Chinese classrooms it is taught as the 病字头, the top of 病.

Radical

Sickness Kangxi #104

Highly productive - one of the strongest semantic clues in the script. If a character is capped with 疒, you can bet on a body, illness, or injury meaning. Always sits on top wrapping the right side; never appears alone in modern writing.

Used in

View all 71 →
Showing 6 of 71 · default form 疒
疯 fēng
insane; mad; crazy · to go crazy; to become mentally deranged
病 bìng
illness; disease · to fall ill
疼 téng
painful; sore · to love dearly; to dote on
痛 tòng
pain; ache; painful · deeply; thoroughly
症 zhèng
disease; illness; condition · symptom; syndrome
症 zhēng
abdominal lump (in traditional Chinese medicine) · bound morpheme in 症结: the crux or sticking point

Stroke Order

疒 nè