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心慌 (xīn huāng) — to feel flustered, nervous, or anxious; (dialect) to have heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat

Definition

心慌 centers on the bodily feeling — heart racing or pounding from nervousness or anxiety. Stronger and more physical than 紧张 (mental tension); more intense than 慌张 (outward fluster).

adjective
to feel flusterednervousor anxious(dialect) to have heart palpitationsirregular heartbeat

Examples

  • 心慌。
    Měi cì kǎo shì qián wǒ dōu xīn huāng.
    I get flustered before every exam.
  • 心慌，。
    Tā pǎo wán bù hòu jué de xīn huāng, jiù zuò xià lái xiū xi le.
    After running, he felt his heart racing, so he sat down to rest.
  • ，心慌。
    Tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, tā tū rán gǎn dào xīn huāng.
    Hearing this news, she suddenly felt flustered.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

心xīnheart
慌huāngflustered

心 means heart and 慌 means flustered, so 心慌 is feeling anxious or having a racing heart.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Open 心 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
忄Written in full as心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
荒
荒huāng慌huāng
Same sound today

慌 pairs 忄 (heart) with 荒, which gives the sound.

Open 慌 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9

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