About
The character "怜" in its current form functions primarily as a simplified variant, with its traditional counterpart being "憐". The traditional character "憐" is composed of the heart/mind radical (忄) on the left, indicating emotion, and the component "粦" on the right, which historically contributed to its pronunciation. Its core meaning has long been associated with feelings of compassion, pity, or sympathy towards others. Interestingly, the simpler form "怜" originally existed as a separate character with a distinct meaning of "clever" or "ingenious", but over centuries of use it was adopted to phonetically and semantically substitute for the more complex "憐", eventually taking on its meaning of pity and largely supplanting it in common writing.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这个小狗很可怜。
我怜悯那个孩子。
请不要怜悯我。
她充满怜爱地看着他。
他对动物总是充满怜惜之情。
她的眼中流露出深深的怜悯。
虽然他很可怜，但我不能帮助他。
在悲剧面前，我们不禁心生怜悯。