惨
cǎn · HSK 6
tragic
😢 忄(heart) + 参 (cǎn phonetic) — heart involved + cǎn sound = tragic, sorrowful
惨 splits into 忄 (heart radical) on the left and 参 (cān/cǎn) on the right, which carries the sound. Heart-radical characters often denote emotions, and here the feeling is grief or tragedy.
惨 — heart radical 忄 + 参 cān (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The heart radical 忄 signals an emotional meaning, while 参 (cān) supplies the sound. The original sense was cruel or grievous suffering, later broadening to mean miserable, tragic, or disastrous.