How to Write 憝 (duì) — Meaning “to hate”

Imagine a solid, thick brick (敦) hitting your heart (心) – that feeling of being struck with heavy anger is exactly the hate that 憝 represents. The top part 敦 resembles a forceful object, and the bottom 心 is the heart receiving that hateful blow.

Start by writing the top part 敦 (9 strokes) in order: left, then right, then bottom – specifically the left side 亠 and 口, then the right side 攵. The bottom 心 (4 strokes) must be written centered below 敦, with the dot on the far right; a common mistake is making the heart too wide or misplacing its middle dot.

憝 (duì) means 'to hate' and has a top part 敦, while 愿 (yuàn) means 'wish' or 'willing' and has a top part 原. 㥯 is a rare character (pronounced yǐn) that means 'hidden worry' and looks like 㥯 with a different top; in modern Chinese only 憝 and 愿 are common, and they differ clearly in both shape and meaning.

憝 is rarely used alone in everyday speech; it mostly appears in formal or literary compounds like 元憝 (arch-villain) or 凶憝 (wicked person). You might encounter it in historical novels or legal texts describing chief criminals, but it is not part of daily conversation or HSK vocabulary.

Common words containing 憝 include: 元憝 (yuán duì) — arch-villain; chief culprit; 凶憝 (xiōng duì) — Wicked person; villain; 奸憝 (jiān duì) — Villain.