馁 (něi) is a Chinese character meaning “disheartened”. It is written from 饣 (food radical (simplified form of 食)) and 妥 (proper; settled), side by side, and takes 10 strokes.
Build the character for “disheartened”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
饣 + 妥
Left–right structure
Structure from: 现代字形按 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（饣3 + 妥7 = 10 笔）；左侧 饣 为食字旁；右侧 妥 的构形功能无可追溯来源，暂标 unknown
Memory aid
Take away the food (饣) and even someone calm and settled (妥) starts to lose heart — hungry and discouraged.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
10 strokes
In real words
- 气馁qì něidiscouraged; to lose heart馁 = něi
Go deeper
All readings
disheartened; hungry
disheartened; discouraged; (literary) hungry, starving
失去勇气；泄气。古义为饥饿。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 气馁qì něidiscouraged; to lose heart馁 = něi
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 馁 mean?
馁 (něi) means disheartened; discouraged; (literary) hungry, starving.
How do you pronounce 馁?
It is pronounced něi.
What parts is 馁 made of?
饣 (food radical (simplified form of 食)) and 妥 (proper; settled), side by side. The recorded source is: 现代字形按 hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验（饣3 + 妥7 = 10 笔）；左侧 饣 为食字旁；右侧 妥 的构形功能无可追溯来源，暂标 unknown. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 馁 have?
10. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 馁?
饣. 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 馁?
Common ones are 气馁. The reading of 馁 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.