How to Write 疴 (kē) — Meaning “illness”

Imagine a person lying in bed with a sick body (疒), and they keep saying 'kě' (可) because they feel so uncomfortable. The sound 'kě' matches the pinyin kē, and the image of a sick person helps you recall the meaning. This links the radical, pronunciation, and meaning in one picture.

The radical 疒 has three strokes: a dot, a left-falling stroke, and a horizontal with a left hook, and it should be written slightly narrower than the right part. The right side 可 (kě) must be balanced: first write the horizontal stroke, then the box-like structure (mouth), and finally the vertical hook. A common mistake is making the 疒 radical too wide or forgetting the hook at the end of the vertical stroke in 可.

疴 (kē) specifically means 'illness' and is used in formal compounds like 沉疴 (severe illness). 疙 (gē) means a bump or pimple, as in 疙瘩 (gē da, lump), and its radical is also 疒 but the right part is 乞. 疚 (jiù) means remorse or guilt (e.g., 内疚, nèi jiù), not physical illness, and its right side is 久. So focus on the right-side component and the core meaning.

疴 is a literary character not found in the HSK vocabulary list, and it is mostly used in formal written Chinese or medical terms like 沉疴 (chén kē, severe lingering illness) and 宿疴 (sù kē, chronic illness). It carries a classical, serious tone and is rarely used in daily conversation. You might encounter it in news articles about health or in classical poetry.

Common words containing 疴 include: 沉疴 (chén kē) — severe lingering illness; 宿疴 (sù kē) — chronic illness; 疴疾 (kē jí) — chronic illness.