The character 样 (yàng): shape

A potter's workshop: a long table before a lattice window onto a green garden, a cartwheel at the left, shelves of bowls and a jar of brushes. On the table a blue and white porcelain vase with a large painted flower, and beside it three unglazed grey vases carved with foliage. At the right the character 样 in black: a bar crossed by a stem with a long stroke falling left and a short one at the right, then two strokes over three widening bars run through by a stem.

Pronunciation: yàng
Strokes: 10
Radical: 木
Made of: 木羊

What it means

manner; pattern; way; appearance; shape; classifier: kind, type

Where its shape comes from

The long form is written 樣, and Xu Shen gives it for the FRUIT of an oak, an acorn. He analyses it as 木, with 羕 (yàng) for the sound: the tree says what is being talked about, the rest supplies the reading. Today's meaning, model, kind, appearance, has nothing to do with that acorn; it settled on the same character later, as often happens in Chinese. The 1956 simplification replaced 羕 with 羊, which was already its sound-bearing core.

Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (1956); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.

A way to remember it

Two characters already learned, shoulder to shoulder: 木 on the left, 羊 on the right. The tree tightens to leave room, exactly as it does in 林 and in 相: its last stroke, which ought to sweep down to the right, shrinks to a dot against the trunk.

This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.

Words it appears in

怎么样 zěn me yàng · HSK 1 how?; how about?; how was it?; how are things?
一样 yī yàng · HSK 3 same; like; equal to; the same as; just like
样子 yàng zi · HSK 4 appearance; manner; pattern; model
样式 yàng shì · HSK 5 type; style
模样 mú yàng · HSK 6 look; style; appearance; approximation; about; CL:個|个[ge4]; also pr. [mo2 yang4]
样品 yàng pǐn · HSK 6 sample; specimen

Writing it

See the stroke order of 样, animated stroke by stroke.