肠

腸
cháng
noun HSK 6 #7,240

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 intestines; gut
  2. 2 sausage casing

Characters

月 (flesh radical) + simplified contraction of 昜 (yáng) phonetic - a body organ.

Examples

HSK 4
Tā xǐhuan chīxiāng cháng.
He likes to eat sausage.
HSK 5
Chángwèi bù shūfu.
My stomach/intestines don't feel well.
HSK 6
Zhōngguó yǒu yī zhǒng xiǎochī jiào chángfěn.
There's a Chinese snack called rice noodle rolls.

Tips

usage
肠 appears in 香肠 (xiāngcháng, sausage), 大肠 (dàcháng, large intestine), 小肠 (xiǎocháng, small intestine), 肠胃 (chángwèi, gastrointestinal), and 肠粉 (chángfěn, rice noodle rolls).
culture
肠粉 (rice noodle rolls) is a beloved Cantonese dim sum dish. 灌肠 (guànchang) is a famous Beijing street snack made from starch stuffed in sausage casing.

Components

radical
⺼ ròu
flesh radical
Left radical ⺼ is the flesh/meat side-form (visually identical to 月 'moon' but historically distinct - derived from 肉). It marks 肠 as a body-organ word: the intestines. Same ⺼ radical groups 肠 with the body-part family - 肝 (liver), 肺 (lungs), 胃 (stomach), 脏 (organ) - all interior anatomy.
phonetic
昜 yáng
rising sun; bright
Right phonetic is the simplified contraction of 昜 (yáng, rising sun) - standalone 昜 has nine strokes but here only three remain after the 1956 simplification reform. Sound shifted yáng → cháng through onset palatalization. The same simplified 3-stroke right-side appears identically in 扬 (yáng, raise), 汤 (tāng, soup), 场 (chǎng, field), 伤 (shāng, injure) - all share this contracted phonetic.

Stroke Order

肠 cháng