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创

創
chuāng / chuàng
noun #4,905

Meanings

  1. 1 a wound; cut; injury
  2. 2 (bound form) to wound; to injure

Examples

战争给这个民族留下了深深的创伤。
Zhànzhēng gěi zhège mínzú liúxià le shēnshēn de chuāngshāng.
The war left this nation with deep wounds.
请在创口上贴一块创可贴。
Qǐng zài chuāngkǒu shàng tiē yī kuài chuāngkětiē.
Please put a Band-Aid on the wound.
敌军遭到重创。
Díjūn zāo dào zhòngchuāng.
The enemy forces suffered heavy losses.

Tips

usage
chuāng is the older, original sense — a cut or wound from a blade — and stays restricted to medical and figurative-damage contexts. Common compounds: 创伤 (wound; trauma — also psychological), 创口 (the wound opening), 创可贴 (adhesive bandage, Band-Aid), 重创 (to inflict heavy damage on), 心理创伤 (psychological trauma), 创伤后应激障碍 (PTSD). The four-character 创巨痛深 describes deep, lasting distress.
mistakes
If the word is about making something new — innovation, founding, originality — switch to chuàng (see the chuàng entry). chuāng is locked to injury / damage. The medical-vs-creative split is clean.

Components

radical
刂 dāo
knife (radical form)
Right indexing radical 刂 (side-form of 刀) — the original meaning was 'wound from a blade.' Creation and wounding share an etymology: both involve cutting, marking, breaking new ground. The chuāng (wound) reading is the older sense; chuàng (create) is the developed metaphorical sense.
phonetic
仓 cāng
warehouse; granary (here phonetic)
Left component 仓 (granary) supplies the sound (cāng → chuàng, drifted in modern Mandarin). Also adds a curious semantic resonance: building a granary was prototypical 'creating' — establishing storage was establishing civilization. Same phonetic series: 怆 (sad), 苍 (deep blue), 沧 (vast), 舱 (cabin).

Stroke Order

创 chuāng