洋 (yáng) is a Chinese character meaning “ocean”. It is written from 氵 (water (left-side form)) and 羊 (sheep; goat), side by side, and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “ocean”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
氵 + 羊
Left–right structure
Structure from: makemeahanzi IDS + hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验
Memory aid
Water (氵) on the left, a sheep (羊) on the right — and the sheep is not there for its wool: it tells you how to say it, yáng. Water that sounds like yáng is the ocean.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 汪洋wāng yángvast expanse of water; boundless ocean洋 = yáng
- 西洋xī yángthe West; the Western world洋 = yáng
- 洋娃娃yáng wá wadoll洋 = yáng
- 洋葱yáng cōngonion洋 = yáng
- 海洋hǎi yángseas and oceans; the ocean洋 = yáng
Go deeper
All readings
ocean
ocean; vast body of water; foreign, Western (as in things from overseas)
比海更大的水域；也表示来自海外的、西方的。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 汪洋wāng yángvast expanse of water; boundless ocean洋 = yáng
- 西洋xī yángthe West; the Western world洋 = yáng
- 洋娃娃yáng wá wadoll洋 = yáng
- 洋葱yáng cōngonion洋 = yáng
- 海洋hǎi yángseas and oceans; the ocean洋 = yáng
Sound component
羊 family exact
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 洋 mean?
洋 (yáng) means ocean; vast body of water; foreign, Western (as in things from overseas).
How do you pronounce 洋?
It is pronounced yáng.
What parts is 洋 made of?
氵 (water (left-side form)) and 羊 (sheep; goat), side by side. The recorded source is: makemeahanzi IDS + hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 洋 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 洋?
水. 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 洋?
Common ones are 汪洋 and 西洋. The reading of 洋 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.