吴 (wú) is a Chinese character meaning “a common Chinese surname”. It is written from 口 (mouth) and 天 (sky; heaven; day), one above the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “the surname Wu”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
口 + 天
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+5434 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection
Memory aid
A mouth (口) opened toward the sky (天) — someone calling out the family name Wu (吴).
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 吴语wú yǔWu Chinese, the dialect group spoken around Shanghai and Suzhou吴 = wú
- 吴国wú guóthe State of Wu, an ancient Chinese state吴 = wú
Go deeper
All readings
a Chinese surname; the ancient state of Wu
a common Chinese surname; the ancient state and region of Wu, around today's Jiangsu and Zhejiang
姓氏；也指中国古代的吴国和长江下游一带的吴地。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 吴语wú yǔWu Chinese, the dialect group spoken around Shanghai and Suzhou吴 = wú
- 吴国wú guóthe State of Wu, an ancient Chinese state吴 = wú
Easy to confuse with
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 吴 mean?
吴 (wú) means a common Chinese surname; the ancient state and region of Wu, around today's Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
How do you pronounce 吴?
It is pronounced wú.
What parts is 吴 made of?
口 (mouth) and 天 (sky; heaven; day), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+5434 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 吴 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 吴?
口. 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 吴?
Common ones are 吴语 and 吴国. The reading of 吴 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.