长 (cháng): long

Meanings

1 long
2 length

Characters

长

cháng

long; length; grow

Examples

HSK 2

这条路很长。

Zhè tiáo lù hěn cháng.

This road is very long.

HSK 2

她的头发很长。

Tā de tóufa hěn cháng.

Her hair is very long.

HSK 3

长城有多长？

Chángchéng yǒu duō cháng?

How long is the Great Wall?

Tips

mistakes

长 has two pronunciations: cháng (long) and zhǎng (to grow; chief/leader). Context determines which one.

culture

长城 (Chángchéng, the Great Wall) literally means 'long wall'. It stretches over 20,000 km.

Components

ideograph

长 cháng

long; grow; chief

Simplified from traditional 長 (8 strokes) in the 1956 reform - 長 was a pictograph of an elder with long flowing hair leaning on a walking stick, the silhouette of age and length. The modern 4-stroke 长 is a stylised cursive contraction that preserves only the silhouette of the flowing hair; not analysable into independent components today. Two readings: cháng 'long' (the original meaning) and zhǎng 'to grow / chief' (the developed meaning of one who has grown old).

Radical

Long Kangxi #168

The 'long/grow' radical. Originally a pictograph of a long-haired figure - long hair signaling age, then 'elder', then 'long' generally. Simplified from 8-stroke 長 to 4-stroke 长. Indexes very few characters (套 'set/cover' is filed here in some schemes). Important mostly as a high-frequency free morpheme covering both spatial 'long' and verbal 'grow up'.