荒 (huāng) is a Chinese character meaning “uncultivated”. It is written from 艹 (grass / plant radical) and 亡 (to perish; to lose) and 川 (river), and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “wasteland; barren”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
艹 + 亡 + 川
Top–middle–bottom structure
Structure from: 说文解字：荒，蕪也。从艸巟聲；巟，水廣也。从川亡聲（巟 在现代字形中写作 亡＋川，已对照 hanzi-writer 笔画核验）
Memory aid
Weeds (艹) spread over a place where the river (川) is gone (亡) — nothing tended, nothing growing but waste.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 荒地huāng dìwasteland; uncultivated land荒 = huāng
- 荒芜huāng wúdesolate; overgrown with weeds; left uncultivated荒 = huāng
- 垦荒kěn huāngto open up wasteland荒 = huāng
- 荒唐huāng tángabsurd; preposterous荒 = huāng
Go deeper
All readings
wasteland; barren
uncultivated; barren; desolate; wasteland; a famine or shortage
没有开垦、没有人耕种的；引申为荒凉、缺乏。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 荒地huāng dìwasteland; uncultivated land荒 = huāng
- 荒芜huāng wúdesolate; overgrown with weeds; left uncultivated荒 = huāng
- 垦荒kěn huāngto open up wasteland荒 = huāng
- 荒唐huāng tángabsurd; preposterous荒 = huāng
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 荒 mean?
荒 (huāng) means uncultivated; barren; desolate; wasteland; a famine or shortage.
How do you pronounce 荒?
It is pronounced huāng.
What parts is 荒 made of?
艹 (grass / plant radical) and 亡 (to perish; to lose) and 川 (river). The recorded source is: 说文解字：荒，蕪也。从艸巟聲；巟，水廣也。从川亡聲（巟 在现代字形中写作 亡＋川，已对照 hanzi-writer 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 荒 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 荒?
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 荒?
Common ones are 荒地 and 荒芜. The reading of 荒 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.