吾 (wú) is a Chinese character meaning “I”. It is written from 五 (five) and 口 (mouth), one above the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “I; my (literary)”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
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Structure
五 + 口
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: 说文解字·口部：吾，我，自稱也。从口五聲
Memory aid
Five (五) sitting on top of a mouth (口): out of five people in the room, only one mouth speaks for itself — 吾, "I".
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 吾辈wú bèiwe; us (literary)吾 = wú
- 吾人wú rénwe; I (literary)吾 = wú
Go deeper
All readings
I; my
I; my; we; our — the literary/classical word for "I", still seen in set phrases and formal writing
我；我的。文言中的第一人称，现代多见于书面语和固定说法。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 吾辈wú bèiwe; us (literary)吾 = wú
- 吾人wú rénwe; I (literary)吾 = wú
Origin
The Shuowen Jiezi analyses 吾 as "from 口 (mouth), with 五 giving the sound", glossing it as 我 — the word you use to name yourself. It is the mouth that does the self-naming; 五 (wǔ) is there for the sound, close to wú.
Source: 说文解字·口部：吾，我，自稱也。从口五聲
Sound component
五 family tone diff
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 吾 mean?
吾 (wú) means I; my; we; our — the literary/classical word for "I", still seen in set phrases and formal writing.
How do you pronounce 吾?
It is pronounced wú.
What parts is 吾 made of?
五 (five) and 口 (mouth), one above the other. The recorded source is: 说文解字·口部：吾，我，自稱也。从口五聲. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 吾 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 吾?
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 吾?
Common ones are 吾辈 and 吾人. The reading of 吾 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.