Chinese character for wolf: 狼 (láng)

The Chinese character for wolf is 狼 (láng). It means wolf and appears in 野狼 (yěláng, wild wolf) and 狼群 (lángqún, wolf pack). In Chinese it can stand for fierceness and teamwork, but also for greed.

How 狼 is built

狼 joins 犭, the animal radical from 犬 (dog), with 良 (liáng, good), which gives the sound. Since wolves look like dogs, the dog radical makes sense. As a memory aid, the wolf is the dog-like animal whose name sounds like 'good' 良, though it is not always good. 狼 is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.

狼 láng · wolf

• 犭quǎn — dog
• 良liáng — good
  • 丶 — dot
  • 艮gěn — blunt

How 狼 is used

Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 狼 is identical in both scripts; note that words like 色狼 (lecher) use it negatively, so 狼 alone is fine but avoid such compounds.

Questions

Related

• 狗dog
• 战士warrior
• 月moon
• 熊bear
• 林forest

Full page for 狼 › All characters for words