恶 (wù) · to hate; to loathe; to detest

Meanings

1 to hate; to loathe; to detest
2 to be ashamed of; to fear
3 to slander

Characters

恶

wù

to hate; to loathe; to detest

Examples

HSK 5

他的行为真可恶。

Tā de xíngwéi zhēn kěwù.

His behavior is truly detestable.

HSK 5

每个人都有自己的好恶。

Měigèrén dōu yǒu zìjǐ de hàowù.

Everyone has their own likes and dislikes.

HSK 7-9

我厌恶说谎的人。

Wǒ yànwù shuōhuǎng de rén.

I detest people who lie.

Tips

usage

The wù reading is the verb form 'to hate / loathe': 厌恶 (to loathe), 可恶 (detestable), 憎恶 (to abhor), 好恶 (likes and dislikes - paired with 好 'to love'), and the four-character 深恶痛绝 (to detest bitterly), 好逸恶劳 (to love ease and hate work). For the adjective 'evil', switch to è; for 'nauseous' in 恶心, switch to ě.

register

The 'to slander' sense is literary and archaic; in modern Chinese the wù reading survives only in the 'to hate / loathe' compounds.

Components

radical

心 xīn

heart; mind

Bottom heart radical - the indexing component. Marks 恶 as a mental or moral quality: hatred, evil, vice. Same heart-base anchors 怒 (anger), 思 (think), 忘 (forget), 急 (urgent). The reading è = evil; reading wù = to hate; reading ě = nauseating.

phonetic

亚 yà

second; inferior (here phonetic)

Top 亚 supplies the sound - yà drifted to è with initial loss. 亚 itself depicts a tomb shaft or building foundation, traditionally read as 'second-rank, lesser'. The faint semantic echo of 'lesser' reinforces the 'bad, evil' reading è. Same phonetic in 哑 (mute), 鸦 (crow).