歪
wāi , wǎi · HSK 7
at a crooked angle
📐 歪 = 不 (not) + 正 (straight) stacked: not-straight = crooked, askew
The character literally piles 不 on top of 正, so it reads not-upright. A leaning tower or a tilted picture frame is 歪. The wǎi reading covers a twisted ankle; wāi covers crooked or devious.
歪 — 不 (not) + 正 (upright)
歪 is a compound ideograph combining 不 'not' on top and 正 'upright/straight' below, literally 'not straight.' It is a relatively late character formed in vernacular Chinese to mean crooked, askew, or slanted. The meaning is transparent from its parts rather than derived from a phonetic component.