瘟 (wēn): epidemic; pestilence; plague

Meanings

1 epidemic; pestilence; plague
2 (figuratively) dull; lackluster (of a performance)
3 (slang) stupid

Characters

瘟

wēn

epidemic, plague; radical 疒 (sickness)

Examples

村里闹了一场瘟。

Cūn lǐ nàole yī chǎng wēn.

An epidemic broke out in the village.

这场戏演得有点瘟。

Zhè chǎng xì yǎn de yǒudiǎn wēn.

This scene was acted a bit listlessly.

鸡瘟把整个鸡场都毁了。

Jīwēn bǎ zhěnggè jīchǎng dōu huǐ le.

Bird flu wiped out the whole chicken farm.

Tips

memory

The radical 疒 (sickness frame) signals every disease character in Chinese. Inside 瘟 sits 昷 (warm/steamy), suggesting 'sickness from steamy, miasmic air' — exactly how pre-modern China explained epidemics. So 瘟 = the radical for 'disease' + the idea of 'feverish, contagious heat'.

register

瘟 rarely stands alone in modern speech; it lives inside compounds like 瘟疫 (plague), 鸡瘟 (avian flu), 猪瘟 (swine fever), 瘟神 (plague god — used as 'jinx, troublemaker'), and the insult 瘟生 (loser, dolt).