药 yào medicine; drug; to poison
Made up of [艹 cǎo grass; herb radical 140]Alternative traditional form of character: 藥
Made with 9 strokes.
Original showed medicinal herbs giving harmony. The modern form has 'restrain' under the 'grass/herb' radical suggesting alleviate illness
Related characters
Also uses 艹 cǎo component: 菜 cài (vegetable) 草 cǎo (grass) 茶 chá (tea) 懂 dǒng (to understand) 花 huā (flower) 节 jié (joint) 苦 kǔ (bitter) 蓝 lán (blue) 劳 láo (to toil) 满 mǎn (to fill) 猫 māo (cat) 蒙 měng (Mongol) 莫 mò (do not) 苹 píng (apple) 葡 pú (grape) 前 qián (front) 若 ruò (to seem) 苏 sū (revive) 萄 táo (grapes) 艺 yì (skill) 英 yīng (flower) 藏 zàng (treasury) 蒸 zhēng (to steam)
Sounds same
要 yào (want)Different tone
幺 yāo (youngest) 咬 yǎo (to bite)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Proverbs
对症下药 duì zhèng xià yào Take the right measures to solve a problem to achieve the desired result换汤不换药 huàn tāng bú huàn yaò Not getting to the root of a problem, making superficial changes
苦口良药 kǔ kǒu liáng yaò It takes hard work and discomfort to achieve something worthwhile