萤 (yíng) is a Chinese character meaning “firefly”. It is written from 艹 (grass / plant radical) and 冖 (cover) and 虫 (insect; bug; worm), and takes 11 strokes.
Build the character for “firefly”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
艹 + 冖 + 虫
Top–middle–bottom structure
Structure from: modern-glyph decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data stroke order (艹3 + 冖2 + 虫6 = 11)
Memory aid
A bug (虫) under a little cover (冖), hidden in the grass (艹) — at night the cover can’t hide its glow. That glowing bug is 萤, the firefly.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
11 strokes
In real words
- 萤火虫yíng huǒ chóngfirefly萤 = yíng
Go deeper
All readings
firefly
firefly; a glowing beetle, as in 萤火虫
萤火虫，一种夜间会发光的昆虫。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 萤火虫yíng huǒ chóngfirefly萤 = yíng
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 萤 mean?
萤 (yíng) means firefly; a glowing beetle, as in 萤火虫.
How do you pronounce 萤?
It is pronounced yíng.
What parts is 萤 made of?
艹 (grass / plant radical) and 冖 (cover) and 虫 (insect; bug; worm). The recorded source is: modern-glyph decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data stroke order (艹3 + 冖2 + 虫6 = 11). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 萤 have?
11. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 萤?
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 萤?
Common ones are 萤火虫. The reading of 萤 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.