癌 (ái): cancer

Meanings

1 cancer
2 carcinoma

Characters

癌

ái

cancer

The character contains 疒 (disease radical) and 嵒 (phonetic component).

Examples

他被诊断出患了肺癌。

Tā bèi zhěnduàn chū huàn le fèi'ái.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer.

早期发现癌症很重要。

Zǎoqī fāxiàn áizhèng hěn zhòngyào.

Early detection of cancer is very important.

Tips

usage

癌 alone means 'cancer' but is usually combined: 肺癌 (lung cancer), 胃癌 (stomach cancer), 癌症 (cancer as a disease).

mistakes

The character 癌 is pronounced ái (2nd tone), not yán. It looks similar to 炎 (yán, inflammation) but the pronunciation is different.

Components

radical

疒 nè

sickness; disease

疒 is the indexing sickness radical, a stylised bed propped up — a person bedridden under a roof. It marks 癌 firmly in the disease family alongside 病 (illness), 疼 (sore), 疫 (epidemic), 疯 (mad). The radical signals: this is a clinical term for a body affliction.

phonetic

嵒 yán

rocky crag; stacked stones

嵒 (yán) sits inside as the phonetic — three 口 above 山, picturing piled boulders. Initial preserved, rime drifted with tone shift to second (ái). The stacked-rock imagery suits the meaning: a tumour is a hard, lumpy stony mass — an inner cliff of cells.