苍 (cāng) is a Chinese character meaning “dark blue-green”. It is written from 艹 (grass / plant radical) and 仓 (storehouse; granary), one above the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “dark blue-green; pale”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
艹 + 仓
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: 说文解字：蒼，艸色也。从艸，倉聲。（现代字形 ⿱艹仓 与笔顺数据一致）
Memory aid
Grass (艹) sitting on a storehouse (仓): the storehouse tells you the sound — cāng — and the grass tells you the colour, that dark blue-green of old plants.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 苍白cāng báipale; pallid; wan苍 = cāng
- 苍天cāng tiānthe blue sky; the heavens苍 = cāng
- 苍茫cāng mángvast and hazy; boundless and dim苍 = cāng
Go deeper
All readings
dark blue-green
dark blue-green; the colour of grass and sky; grey (of hair); pale; vast
深青色，草和天空的颜色；也指头发灰白、脸色发白，或形容天地辽阔。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 苍白cāng báipale; pallid; wan苍 = cāng
- 苍天cāng tiānthe blue sky; the heavens苍 = cāng
- 苍茫cāng mángvast and hazy; boundless and dim苍 = cāng
Sound component
仓 family exact
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 苍 mean?
苍 (cāng) means dark blue-green; the colour of grass and sky; grey (of hair); pale; vast.
How do you pronounce 苍?
It is pronounced cāng.
What parts is 苍 made of?
艹 (grass / plant radical) and 仓 (storehouse; granary), one above the other. The recorded source is: 说文解字：蒼，艸色也。从艸，倉聲。（现代字形 ⿱艹仓 与笔顺数据一致）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 苍 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 苍?
艹. 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 苍?
Common ones are 苍白 and 苍天. The reading of 苍 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.