恨 (hèn) is a Chinese character meaning “to hate”. It is written from 忄 (heart (left-side form)) and 艮 (gèn — Kangxi radical 138; the trigram for mountain, also "stubborn"), side by side, and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “to hate”
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Structure
忄 + 艮
Left–right structure
- 忄 heart (left-side form) · xīn meaning
- 艮 gèn — Kangxi radical 138; the trigram for mountain, also "stubborn" · gèn sound
Structure from: 说文解字：恨，怨也。从心艮聲。现代字形按 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（忄3 + 艮6 = 9 笔）
Memory aid
忄 on the left is the heart. 艮 on the right means stubborn, and also carries the sound — gèn, close to hèn. A feeling that will not budge from your heart: 恨, hatred.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 怨恨yuàn hènto resent; resentment恨 = hèn
- 忿恨fèn hènto resent; resentment; bitter indignation恨 = hèn
Go deeper
All readings
to hate
to hate; hatred; to resent; to regret deeply
强烈地怨；仇视。也表示懊悔、遗憾。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 怨恨yuàn hènto resent; resentment恨 = hèn
- 忿恨fèn hènto resent; resentment; bitter indignation恨 = hèn
Origin
A phono-semantic compound: the heart element 心 (written 忄 on the left) gives the meaning, and 艮 on the right supplies the sound. 说文解字 glosses it as 怨 — resentment.
Source: 说文解字：恨，怨也。从心艮聲。
Sound component
艮 family onset shift
Easy to confuse with
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 恨 mean?
恨 (hèn) means to hate; hatred; to resent; to regret deeply.
How do you pronounce 恨?
It is pronounced hèn.
What parts is 恨 made of?
忄 (heart (left-side form)) and 艮 (gèn — Kangxi radical 138; the trigram for mountain, also "stubborn"), side by side. The recorded source is: 说文解字：恨，怨也。从心艮聲。现代字形按 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（忄3 + 艮6 = 9 笔）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 恨 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 恨?
心. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 恨?
Common ones are 怨恨 and 忿恨. The reading of 恨 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.