苍

蒼
cāng
adjective #15,863

Meanings

  1. 1 dark blue
  2. 2 deep green
  3. 3 ash-gray
  4. 4 pale
  5. 5 vast

Examples

HSK 5
Tā de tóufa yǐjīng cāngbái le.
His hair has already turned gray/white.
HSK 7-9
Cāngtiān bù fù yǒuxīnrén.
Heaven does not forsake those who try. (Proverb)

Tips

usage
苍 is literary and appears mainly in set phrases: 苍天 (heaven), 苍白 (pale), 苍老 (aged), 苍蝇 (fly, though unrelated in meaning). It conveys a sense of vastness, age, or muted color.

Components

radical
艹 cǎo
grass; plant (radical form)
Top grass radical (the cap-form of 艸) - the indexing radical. Anchors 苍 in the plant family with 草 grass, 茂 lush, 蓝 indigo, 绿 green. Here the radical contributes the central colour image: 苍 names the deep blue-green of dense vegetation, sky, ocean - the colour of nature seen at scale.
phonetic
仓 cāng
granary
Bottom 仓 supplies the sound cāng, an exact match with no drift. The 'granary' sense plays no part in the meaning; pure sound peg here. Same phonetic powers 沧 (dark sea-blue), 舱 cabin, 抢 to grab, 枪 spear. 沧 and 苍 are near-twins, both evoking the vast blue-green expanse of nature.

Stroke Order

苍 cāng