药 — leaf of the iris
- Pinyin
- yào
- Strokes
- 9
- HSK level
- HSK 2
- Handwriting
- recognition only
How to write 药: 9 strokes
Each cell adds one stroke to the previous ones, with the new stroke in red. Stroke order is not decoration: it sets the proportions of the character and makes handwriting legible to a reader. The syllabus asks you to recognise this character rather than write it by hand.
Words with 药 in the HSK syllabus: 12
Every word in the official 2026 syllabus that contains this character, with the level it is introduced at. Learning a character pays off through these: each one combines with the characters you already know.
- 药yàoleaf of the irisHSK 2
- 药店yàodiànpharmacy; drugstoreHSK 2
- 药品yàopǐnmedicaments; medicine; drugHSK 5
- 药物yàowùmedicaments; pharmaceuticals; medication; medicineHSK 5
- 中药zhōngyàotraditional Chinese medicineHSK 5
- 医药yīyàomedical care and medicines; medicine; medicalHSK 6
- 安眠药ānmiányàosleeping pillHSK 7–9
- 草药cǎoyàoherbal medicineHSK 7–9
- 对症下药duìzhèng-xiàyàolit. to prescribe the right medicine for an illness; fig. to study a problem to find the right way to solve itHSK 7–9
- 药材yàocáimedicinal ingredientHSK 7–9
- 药方yàofāngprescriptionHSK 7–9
- 炸药zhàyàoexplosive; blasting agent; dynamiteHSK 7–9
Glosses come from CC-CEDICT, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and are the dictionary’s first sense rather than a translation chosen for context.