How to Write 庵 (ān) — Meaning “nunnery or small hut”

Imagine a nunnery (庵) as a small hut with a wide roof, represented by 广 on top. The lower part 奄 sounds like 'an' in 'nun', so you can remember: 'An nunnery under a wide roof.' This links the shape and sound to the meaning.

Start with 广 (dot, horizontal, left-falling), then write 大 inside, followed by 曰 (four strokes: horizontal, vertical, horizontal, horizontal), and finish with a curved hook 乚. A common mistake is making 曰 too tall or forgetting the hook, so keep the bottom part compact.

庵 means 'nunnery' or 'hut', while 庠 (xiáng) means 'ancient school' and contains 羊 (sheep) instead of 奄. 㢆 is a rare variant of 庵 with the same meaning but different stroke order; it is not used in modern Chinese. The key visual difference is the component below 广: 庵 has 奄, 庠 has 羊.

庵 mainly appears in Buddhist contexts, such as 尼姑庵 (nunnery) or 草庵 (thatched hut). It is also used in historical or literary descriptions of simple dwellings. Outside of temple names or classical terms, it is not common in daily conversation.

Common words containing 庵 include: 尼姑庵 (ní gū ān) — nunnery; Buddhist convent; 草庵 (cǎo ān) — Thatched hut; small temple.; 庵堂 (ān táng) — nunnery.