短
Tap the pinyin to hear it
short; brief; to lack; weak point; fault
- HSK 3.0
- Level 2
- Old HSK
- Level 3
- Strokes
- 12
- Radical
- 矢 +7
- Structure
- Left–right 左右
- Traditional
- 短
- Common rank
- #532
- Unicode
- U+77ED
Sound it out + + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 短
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 东家长西家短 | to gossip (idiom) | |
| 一长一短 | (idiom) talking endlessly; long-winded | |
| 家长家短 | family goings-on | |
| 打短儿 | casual labor; to work for a bit | |
| 说长道短 | lit. to discuss sb's merits and demerits (idiom); to gossip | |
| 眼光短 | short-sighted | |
| 张家长，李家短 | lit. the Zhangs are better off than the Lis (idiom); to gossip about the neighbors | |
| 论长道短 | lit. to discuss sb's merits and demerits (idiom); to gossip | |
| 飞短流长 | variant of 蜚短流長|蜚短流长[fei1 duan3 liu2 chang2] | |
| 发短信 | to send a text message | |
| 长话短说 | (idiom) to make a long story short; to keep it brief | |
| 三长两短 | unexpected misfortune; unexpected accident; sudden death | |
| 短波长 | short wavelength | |
| 短中取长 | see 短中抽長|短中抽长[duan3 zhong1 chou1 chang2] | |
| 短时间 | short term; short time | |
| 吃人家的嘴软，拿人家的手短 | lit. the mouth that has been fed by others is soft, the hand that has received doesn't rea… | |
| 短发 | short hair | |
| 长短 | length; accident; mishap; right and wrong; good and bad; merits and demerits | |
| 短文 | short piece; article; short essay | |
| 短多 | good prospects in the short term (finance) |
Sound family
Characters sharing the sound component 豆 — compare how they read.