芜 (wú) is a Chinese character meaning “(of land) overgrown with weeds, left uncultivated”. It is written from 艹 (grass / plant radical) and 无 (not have; without), one above the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “land taken over by weeds”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
艹 + 无
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: 说文解字: 蕪，薉也。从艸無聲（简化字 芜 以 无 代 無，构形不变）; modern decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data stroke counts (艹 3 + 无 4 = 芜 7)
Memory aid
Grass (艹) sitting on top of 无 "nothing" — when a field has nothing planted and nobody tending it, weeds take the whole place over.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 荒芜huāng wúdesolate; overgrown with weeds; left uncultivated芜 = wú
- 芜杂wú zájumbled; mixed and disorderly (of writing or material)芜 = wú
Go deeper
All readings
overgrown with weeds
(of land) overgrown with weeds, left uncultivated; (of writing) jumbled and disorderly
田地长满野草、无人耕种；引申指文章杂乱没有条理。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 荒芜huāng wúdesolate; overgrown with weeds; left uncultivated芜 = wú
- 芜杂wú zájumbled; mixed and disorderly (of writing or material)芜 = wú
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 芜 mean?
芜 (wú) means (of land) overgrown with weeds, left uncultivated; (of writing) jumbled and disorderly.
How do you pronounce 芜?
It is pronounced wú.
What parts is 芜 made of?
艹 (grass / plant radical) and 无 (not have; without), one above the other. The recorded source is: 说文解字: 蕪，薉也。从艸無聲（简化字 芜 以 无 代 無，构形不变）; modern decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data stroke counts (艹 3 + 无 4 = 芜 7). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 芜 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 芜?
艹. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 芜?
Common ones are 荒芜 and 芜杂. The reading of 芜 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.