How to Write 颐 (yí) — Meaning “cheek / jaw / to nourish”

Picture a person opening their mouth wide to eat a big meal — the left side looks like a jaw with a mouth, and the right side 页 reminds you it's part of the head. Think "I YI (eat) heartily" to connect to the meaning of nourishing.

The left part is 匚 with 口 inside — write the box first, then the mouth, making sure the mouth does not touch the top line. The right side 页 (7 strokes) must be narrower and slightly lower than the left; a common error is making both sides equal in width.

颐 means cheek/jaw, while 颅 (颅, lú) means skull and 领 (领, lǐng) means neck or collar. Visually, 颐 has a box-with-mouth left component, 颅 uses 卢 (a different left part), and 领 has 令 on the left — all share the 页 radical but differ in meaning and left component.

颐 appears in the famous tourist site 颐和园 (Summer Palace), where "颐" suggests nourishing harmony. It is also used in the idiom 大快朵颐 to describe eating with great enjoyment, and in 颐养 for maintaining health — so it carries positive, cultural associations with care and pleasure.

Common words containing 颐 include: 颐和园 (yí hé yuán) — Summer Palace; 大快朵颐 (dà kuài duǒ yí) — To feast or eat heartily; 颐养 (yí yǎng) — to maintain (one's health) / to care for.