How to Write 痤 (cuó) — Meaning “acne”

Imagine someone sitting (坐) on a painful pimple, and the 疒 radical reminds you it is a sickness of the skin. This picture of "sitting on acne" helps you link the parts to the meaning.

Write the radical 疒 first (dot, horizontal, left-falling, dot, upward stroke) then write 坐 (starting with two short strokes, then cross, then verticals). A common mistake is making the 疒 too wide or forgetting the dot inside the radical, so keep the left side narrow and balanced.

Although all three use the sickness radical 疒, 痤 specifically means acne or pimples, while 疱 means blister or herpes and 疰 refers to chronic diseases like summer heat illness. Visually, 痤 has 坐 on the right, 疱 has 包, and 疰 has 主, so the right parts are completely different.

痤 appears in formal or medical terms like 痤疮 (acne) and 痤疮膏 (acne cream). In daily conversation, people more often say 青春痘 (teenage pimples), but 痤 is the correct clinical character for acne conditions.

Common words containing 痤 include: 痤疮 (cuó chuāng) — acne; pimples; 长痤疮 (zhǎng cuó chuāng) — To develop acne; 痤疮膏 (cuó chuāng gāo) — acne cream.