药 (yào): medicine; drug

Meanings

1 medicine; drug

Characters

药

yào

medicine; drug

Contains 艹 (grass/plant radical) — herbal medicine from plants.

Examples

你吃药了吗？

Nǐ chī yào le ma?

Have you taken your medicine?

这种药一天吃三次。

Zhè zhǒng yào yì tiān chī sān cì.

Take this medicine three times a day.

医生给我开了药。

Yīshēng gěi wǒ kāi le yào.

The doctor prescribed medicine for me.

Tips

culture

Traditional Chinese Medicine (中医) uses herbal remedies (中药) that have been developed over thousands of years. Many Chinese pharmacies sell both Western medicine (西药) and traditional Chinese medicine side by side.

usage

Common medicine phrases: 吃药 (take medicine), 开药 (prescribe medicine), 买药 (buy medicine), 中药 (Chinese medicine), 西药 (Western medicine).

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical (Kangxi #140 艸 in its 3-stroke compressed form) — the indexing radical. Anchors the original sense: traditional Chinese medicine was made from herbs, so most early 药 was botanical. The radical groups 茶 (tea), 花 (flower), 草 (grass), 菜 (vegetable), 莓 (berry) — botanical and medicinal lexicon.

phonetic

约 yuē

about; appointment; bind

Bottom phonetic 约 (yuē) — supplies the sound, shifting to yào. The simplified 药 replaced traditional 藥's complex 樂 phonetic with the much simpler 约 to ease writing. Standalone 约 means 'to bind, agree, approximately' — pure phonetic substitute, no semantic carryover.