Kilo Lingo

常

cháng

Traditional: 常

#1563 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

often, frequently, usual, common

Word origin

Originally a noun for a unit of length and by extension constancy, 常 combines the cloth radical 巾 with 尚 (shàng) as phonetic, and came to mean constant or frequent.

Origin
phono-semantic
Root
巾 (jīn, cloth) + 尚 (shàng, phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 常

常

Examples

。

He often comes to my house as a guest.

。

We often eat at that restaurant.

。

This is a common occurrence.

。

She often thinks of things from her childhood.

冬dōng雪xuě。

It often snows here in winter.

常 (cháng) means often or frequently as an adverb, and usual or common as a stative word. It is the single-character core behind compounds such as 经常 and 常常.

Appears in 4 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 常.

非常fēi chángextremely, very, unusual正常zhèng chángnormal, regular, ordinary经常jīng chángoften, frequently通常tōng chángusually, normally, generally

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 32.