姜 (jiāng) is a Chinese character meaning “ginger (the pungent root used in cooking)”. It is written from 丷 (two spreading strokes) and 王 (king) and 女 (woman; female), and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “ginger”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
丷 + 王 + 女
Top–middle–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+59DC and hanzi-writer-data modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-2 丷, strokes 3-6 王 shape, strokes 7-9 女)
Memory aid
Two little sprouts (丷) pushing up over a king (王), with a woman (女) kneeling underneath to dig it out. What she pulls up is the king of roots: ginger.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 生姜shēng jiāngfresh ginger姜 = jiāng
Go deeper
All readings
ginger
ginger (the pungent root used in cooking); also a Chinese surname
姜，一种辛辣的根茎，常用来做菜去腥；也用作姓。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 生姜shēng jiāngfresh ginger姜 = jiāng
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 姜 mean?
姜 (jiāng) means ginger (the pungent root used in cooking); also a Chinese surname.
How do you pronounce 姜?
It is pronounced jiāng.
What parts is 姜 made of?
丷 (two spreading strokes) and 王 (king) and 女 (woman; female). The recorded source is: Unicode U+59DC and hanzi-writer-data modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-2 丷, strokes 3-6 王 shape, strokes 7-9 女). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 姜 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 姜?
女. 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 姜?
Common ones are 生姜. The reading of 姜 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.