How to Write 犴 (àn) — Meaning “jail; wild dog”

Imagine a wild dog (犭) tied to a post (干) — that dog is trapped, so it's in a prison (jail). Or think of a "hound" (dog) being detained by a hard "dry" (干 sounds like "and") place, which is a jail.

Write the left radical 犭 first: a left-slanting stroke, then a short hook stroke, then an upward flick; this radical is narrow. Then on the right, write 干: first the horizontal stroke, then the vertical stroke, and finally the bottom horizontal. A common mistake is making the 犭 too wide or forgetting that the right component 干 has a vertical stroke passing through the top horizontal.

犯 (fàn) means "to commit a crime" or "invade" and uses 犭 + 卩 (knot); it is common in HSK. 犰 (qiú) is a rare character meaning a mythical beast, with 犭 + 九. In contrast, 犴 specifically means "jail" or "wild dog" and is almost never used in modern daily Chinese except in fixed terms like 犴狱 (prison). Visually, the right parts are completely different: 干 vs. 卩 vs. 九.

犴 is very rare and not in HSK; modern Chinese mostly uses 监狱 (jiānyù) for "prison". You might encounter 犴 only in classical literature or in the word 驼犴 (tuó àn) meaning moose or elk (a loanword). Culturally, 犴 appears in ancient texts describing mythical beasts or jail cells, but today it is almost obsolete except in formal or historical contexts.

Common words containing 犴 include: 犴狱 (àn yù) — prison; jail; 驼犴 (tuó àn) — moose; elk; 犴狴 (àn bì) — prison; jail.