五 (wǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “five”. It is written from 一 (one) and 丨 (vertical stroke) and ㇕ and 一 (one), and takes 4 strokes.
Build the character for “five”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
一 + 丨 + ㇕ + 一
Overlapping structure
- 一 one · yī unknown
- 丨 vertical stroke · gǔn unknown
- ㇕ horizontal-turning stroke unknown
- 一 one · yī unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+4E94; modern glyph stroke decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry
Memory aid
A lid (一) on top and a floor (一) at the bottom. Between them 丨 drops down and ㇕ turns back to the right — a hand counting off five inside a closed box.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
4 strokes
In real words
- 五月wǔ yuèMay五 = wǔHSK 1
- 十五shí wǔfifteen五 = wǔHSK 1
Go deeper
All readings
five
five; 5; fifth
数目，四加一的和；也表示第五。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 五月wǔ yuèMay五 = wǔHSK 1
- 十五shí wǔfifteen五 = wǔHSK 1
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 五 mean?
五 (wǔ) means five; 5; fifth.
How do you pronounce 五?
It is pronounced wǔ.
What parts is 五 made of?
一 (one) and 丨 (vertical stroke) and ㇕ and 一 (one). The recorded source is: Unicode U+4E94; modern glyph stroke decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 五 have?
4. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 五?
二. 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 五?
Common ones are 五月 and 十五. The reading of 五 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.