苇 (wěi) is a Chinese character meaning “reed”. It is written from 艹 (grass / plant radical) and 韦 (wéi — tanned/softened leather; the simplified form of 韋, also used as a sound part), one above the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “reed”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
艹 + 韦
Top–bottom structure
- 艹 grass / plant radical · cǎo meaning
- 韦 wéi — tanned/softened leather; the simplified form of 韋, also used as a sound part · wéi sound
Structure from: 现代字形拆分（IDS ⿱艹韦；笔画核验 艹3 + 韦4 = 7）
Memory aid
Grass (艹) growing on top of 韦 wéi — the plant part tells you it is a plant, and 韦 tells you roughly how it sounds: wěi, a reed.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 芦苇lú wěireed (the tall water plant)苇 = wěi
Go deeper
All readings
reed
reed; the tall hollow-stemmed grass that grows by water
苇子，即芦苇，生在水边的高秆草本植物。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 芦苇lú wěireed (the tall water plant)苇 = wěi
Sound component
韦 family tone diff
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 苇 mean?
苇 (wěi) means reed; the tall hollow-stemmed grass that grows by water.
How do you pronounce 苇?
It is pronounced wěi.
What parts is 苇 made of?
艹 (grass / plant radical) and 韦 (wéi — tanned/softened leather; the simplified form of 韋, also used as a sound part), one above the other. The recorded source is: 现代字形拆分（IDS ⿱艹韦；笔画核验 艹3 + 韦4 = 7）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 苇 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 苇?
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 苇?
Common ones are 芦苇. The reading of 苇 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.