How to Write 怊 (chāo) — Meaning “sad; disappointed”

Imagine you 'summon' (召) a sad feeling from your heart (忄) when you receive bad news. The left side 忄 looks like a dripping heart, and the right side 召 sounds like 'chow'—think of eating a disappointing meal that makes you feel 'chāo' (sad).

Write the radical 忄 first as two dots and a vertical line (dot, dot, vertical), then write the right side 召 starting with the top 'knife' (刀) and then the mouth (口). A common mistake is making the left vertical line too short or forgetting the second dot—keep the heart radical narrow and balanced with the wider right side.

怊 (chāo) means 'sad; disappointed', while 忏 (chàn) means 'repent' or 'confess' and is used in words like 忏悔 (repent). 忕 (shì) is rare and means 'habit' or 'accustomed'. Visually, 怊 has 召 on the right, 忏 has 千 (thousand), and 忕 has 大 (big)—so the right side parts are completely different.

怊 is very rare in everyday speech and is mostly found in classical literature or poetic writing to express deep sadness or disappointment. For example, 怊怅 (chāo chàng) describes a feeling of melancholy, and 怊然 (chāo rán) means 'sadly'. You will not see it in HSK vocabulary, but it appears in older texts or artistic language.

Common words containing 怊 include: 怊怅 (chāo chàng) — sad and disappointed; 怊然 (chāo rán) — sadly; in a disappointed manner; 怊怊 (chāo chāo) — sorrowful; sad.