HSK 5 · Adjectives

歪 wāi “askew” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 歪 means

  1. askew
  2. at a crooked angle
  3. devious
  4. noxious
  5. (coll.) to lie on one’s side

How to say 歪

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale歪wāi1st tone, high and level

歪 in a sentence

  1. 他的假发歪了。

    Tā de jiǎfà wāi le.

    His wig is crooked.

    Sentence #728662 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 上梁不正下梁歪。

    Shàng liáng bú zhèng xià liáng wāi.

    If the top beam isn’t straight, the lower beams will be crooked (bad leaders set a bad example).

    Sentence #810048 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 歪 can also mean “improper; wrong” (歪路 = the wrong path)

    这小女孩如果没人关心的话，就要走上歪路了。

    Zhè xiǎo nǚhái rúguǒ méi rén guānxīn dehuà, jiù yào zǒushàng wāilù le.

    If nobody looks out for this little girl, she’ll go astray.

    Sentence #333851 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 歪 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 歪 (wāi) with each of its parts in a different colour
歪wāiaskew
  • 不no · bù
  • 正straight · zhēng

How to write 歪

歪 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

歪 (wāi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 歪 (wāi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 歪

Words with 歪

歪曲wāiqū · to distort

More words: Adjectives

特殊tèshū · special天真tiānzhēn · naive透明tòumíng · transparent突出tūchū · prominent完美wánměi · perfect完善wánshàn · complete完整wánzhěng · complete伟大wěidà · great

FAQs

歪 (wāi) means “askew” or “at a crooked angle”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it wāi: wāi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 歪 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type wai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 歪 from the suggestions. Typing wai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
歪 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.