How to Write 喟 (kuì) — Meaning “To sigh”

Imagine you are so full after a big meal that your stomach (胃) makes you let out a loud sigh (口) — that sigh is 喟. The left side is the mouth, and the right side looks like "stomach" — a sigh that comes from deep inside.

The left radical 口 should be small and placed high, not taking up too much space. The right part 胃 has a field-like top (田) with a clear bottom (月) — be careful not to make the 田 too wide or miss the horizontal stroke inside it. Total 12 strokes, and the order is: left side first (口), then top to bottom on the right.

喟 (kuì) means to sigh and uses 口 + 胃, while 哥 (gē) means elder brother and is a reduplication of 可 (kě) — visually, 哥 has two 可 stacked. 㕡 (hè) is an extremely rare character meaning a deep pit or gully; it looks like 口 over 壑 but is not used in modern Chinese. The key difference is that only 喟 has the stomach component (胃) and a sighing meaning.

喟 is a literary character rarely used in daily speech; you will mostly see it in written expressions like 喟叹 (kuì tàn) meaning "to sigh deeply" or 喟然 (kuì rán) meaning "with a sigh." It often appears in classical Chinese texts or formal writing to describe a heavy, emotional sigh, and it carries a poetic or historical feel.

Common words containing 喟 include: 喟叹 (kuì tàn) — To sigh deeply; 喟然 (kuì rán) — Sighing; 喟然叹息 (kuì rán tàn xī) — To heave a deep sigh.