How to Write 殗 (yè) — Meaning “sickness; to be ill”

Picture the left part 歹 as a broken bone or danger, and the right part 奄 as a person lying under a blanket (the top 大 is the person's head, and the bottom 电 looks like a bed). So 殗 is a "dangerous blanket" — a sick person lying in bed. This mental image helps you associate the character with illness.

Write the left radical 歹 first: horizontal, diagonal hook, short diagonal, then dot (not a dash). Then write the right part 奄: start with 大 (horizontal, left-falling, right-falling), then 日 (vertical, horizontal fold, etc.), and finally 电 (vertical, horizontal fold, then a vertical hook). A common mistake is making the last stroke of 电 a vertical line instead of a hook.

殗 (yè) means "sick" or "slightly ill," while 殉 (xùn) means "to die for a cause" or "to be buried with the dead," and 殊 (shū) means "different" or "special" (or "to die" in classical context). Visually, the right parts are different: 奄 (yǎn) for 殗, 旬 (xún) for 殉, and 朱 (zhū) for 殊. Pay attention to the top component of each right side.

殗 is very rare in modern Chinese and not part of the HSK vocabulary. It appears mostly in classical or medical texts, such as in the words 殗殜 (yè dié, "slightly ill") and 殗殗 (yè yè, "sickly or lingering illness"). You will almost never see it alone in daily conversation; it is a scholarly or historical character.

Common words containing 殗 include: 殗殜 (yè dié) — to be slightly ill; 殗殗 (yè yè) — sickly; lingering illness; 殗病 (yè bìng) — to be sick.