常
Spell out: + =
always; ever; often; frequently; common; general; constant
11 strokes
Dict coverage rank #461 U+5E38
How 常 is formed
Phono-semantic compound (形声字)
巾 (semantic, “cloth”) + 尚 (phonetic, shàng)
How to remember it
often · Heisig RSH #705
outhouse + 巾 towel
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Phonetic series: characters sharing the sound component 尚
Siblings built with the same phonetic component 尚 (shàng) — compare how they read:
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 尚 sound component | shàng | still, yet; even; fairly, rather |
| 党 | dǎng | political party, gang, faction |
| 堂 | táng | hall, large room; government office; cousins |
| 掌 | zhǎng | in charge; the palm of the hand, the sole of the foot |
| 赏 | shǎng | reward; to appreciate; to bestow, to grant |
| 尝 | cháng | to taste; to experience, to experiment with |
| 躺 | tǎng | to recline, to lie down |
| 敞 | chǎng | wide, open, spacious |
| 棠 | táng | crabapple tree; wild plum |
| 趟 | tàng | time, occasion; to make a journey |
| 倘 | tǎng | if, supposing, in event of |
| 淌 | tǎng | to trickle down, to flow, to drip; to shed tears |
| 裳 | cháng | skirt, petticoat; beautiful |
| 惝 | chǎng | alarmed, agitated |
| 徜 | cháng | to linger, to walk back and forth |
| 绱 | shàng | the sole of a shoe; to patch, to sole |
| 䠀 | chǎng | to meditate; to sit cross-legged |
| 牚 | chēng | variant of 撐|撑[cheng1] |
Words containing 常
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 常山县 | Cháng shān Xiàn | Changshan, a county in Quzhou City 衢州市[Qu2 zhou1 Shi4], Zhejiang |
| 黑白无常 | Hēi Bái Wú cháng | (Chinese folk religion) Heibai Wuchang: two deities, one dressed in black and the other in… |
| 人之常情 | rén zhī cháng qíng | human nature (idiom); a behavior that is only natural |
| 拉家常 | lā jiā cháng | to talk or chat about ordinary daily life |
| 不平常 | bù píng cháng | remarkable; remarkably; unusual |
| 平常心 | píng cháng xīn | levelheadedness; calmness; equanimity |
| 常德市 | Cháng dé Shì | Changde, prefecture-level city in Hunan Province 湖南省[Hu2 nan2 Sheng3] |
| 变化无常 | biàn huà wú cháng | (idiom) changeable; fickle |
| 日常工作 | rì cháng gōng zuò | routine |
| 全国人大常委会 | Quán guó Rén Dà Cháng wěi huì | Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (abbr. for 全國人民代表大會常務委員會|全国人民代表大会常务委员… |
| 全国人民代表大会常务委员会 | Quán guó Rén mín Dài biǎo Dà huì Cháng wù Wěi yuán huì | Standing Committee of the National People's Congress |
| 千里马常有，而伯乐不常有 | qiān lǐ mǎ cháng yǒu , ér Bó lè bù cháng yǒu | (lit.) there are many swift horses, but very few who can spot them (proverb); (fig.) many … |
| 常州市 | Cháng zhōu Shì | Changzhou, prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province 江蘇省|江苏省[Jiang1 su1 Sheng3] |
| 平常日 | píng cháng rì | weekday |
| 正常工作 | zhèng cháng gōng zuò | normal operation; proper functioning |
| 不正常 | bù zhèng cháng | abnormal |
| 正常成本 | zhèng cháng chéng běn | normal cost (accountancy) |
| 正常化 | zhèng cháng huà | normalization (of diplomatic relations etc) |
| 常任理事国 | cháng rèn lǐ shì guó | permanent member state (of the UN Security Council) |
| 常人 | cháng rén | ordinary person |