寡
Tap the pinyin to hear it
few; scant; widowed
- HSK 3.0
- Level 7–9
- Strokes
- 14
- Radical
- 宀 +11
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 寡
- Common rank
- #1,612
- Unicode
- U+5BE1
Sound it out + + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 寡 is formed
How to remember it
widowed · Heisig RSH #1559
house + ceiling + nose + tool + dagger
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 寡
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 得道多助，失道寡助 | A just cause attracts much support, an unjust one finds little (idiom, from Mencius) | |
| 寡头政治 | oligarchy | |
| 曲高和寡 | difficult songs find few singers (idiom); highbrow | |
| 落落寡合 | aloof; standoffish; unsociable | |
| 落落寡交 | aloof and as a result friendless (idiom) | |
| 清汤寡水 | meager fare; (fig.) insipid; colorless | |
| 寡二少双 | peerless; second to none (idiom) | |
| 失道寡助 | an unjust cause finds little support (idiom, from Mencius); cf 得道多助[de2 dao4 duo1 zhu4] a … | |
| 清心寡欲 | (idiom) uninterested in self-indulgence; abstemious; ascetic | |
| 孤家寡人 | one who is cut off from others (idiom); one who has chosen to follow a solitary path; (can… | |
| 红寡妇鸟 | (ornithology) red bishop (Euplectes orix) | |
| 索然寡味 | dull and insipid | |
| 落落寡欢 | melancholy; unhappy | |
| 寡人 | I (first person pronoun used by royalty or nobility) | |
| 寡头 | oligarch | |
| 寡不敌众 | the few are no match for the many; heavily outnumbered; facing impossible odds (idiom) | |
| 多寡 | number; amount | |
| 守活寡 | to stay at home while one's husband is away; grass widow | |
| 不患寡而患不均 | do not worry about scarcity, but rather about uneven distribution (idiom, from Analects) | |
| 寡情 | heartless; unfeeling |