药藥 yào — medicine, a drug; a herbal remedy; a chemical preparation
yào (fourth tone, falling)
Traditional: 藥
medicine, a drug; a herbal remedy; a chemical preparation
9 strokesRadical 艸Frequency #433
Pinyin
- yào (fourth tone, falling)
medicine, a drug; a herbal remedy; a chemical preparation
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿱艹约The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 艹meaning partno entry yetThe grass radical: medicines were plants first and everything else afterwards.
- 约sound partno entry yet约 yuē for the sound. The traditional 藥 carries 樂 lè / yuè in this position; simplification replaced it with the shorter homophone.
Mnemonic
Herbs 艹 over 约 for the sound. Note the verb the language chooses: medicine is eaten, not taken — 吃药 — and that pairing is fixed, so 喝药 sounds wrong for a tablet. 中药 is Chinese herbal medicine, 西药 the Western sort, and 药店 the shop that sells either.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.
Words containing 药
- 药藥yào (fourth tone, falling)medicine, drug
- 药物藥物yào (fourth tone, falling) wù (fourth tone, falling)medicaments
- 药品藥品yào (fourth tone, falling) pǐn (third tone, dipping)medicaments
- 医药醫藥yī (first tone, high and level) yào (fourth tone, falling)medical care and medicines
- 炸药炸藥zhà (fourth tone, falling) yào (fourth tone, falling)explosive (material)
- 药店藥店yào (fourth tone, falling) diàn (fourth tone, falling)pharmacy
- 火药火藥huǒ (third tone, dipping) yào (fourth tone, falling)gunpowder
- 安眠药安眠藥ān (first tone, high and level) mián (second tone, rising) yào (fourth tone, falling)sleeping pill
- 药水藥水yào (fourth tone, falling) shuǐ (third tone, dipping)medicine in liquid form
- 药方藥方yào (fourth tone, falling) fāng (first tone, high and level)prescription
- 药片藥片yào (fourth tone, falling) piàn (fourth tone, falling)a (medicine) pill or tablet
- 中药中藥zhōng (first tone, high and level) yào (fourth tone, falling)traditional Chinese medicine
- 药材藥材yào (fourth tone, falling) cái (second tone, rising)medicinal ingredient