淤 meaning and stroke order
Mud, sediment; to clog up, to silt up
How to write 淤, stroke by stroke
11 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
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- 11
Meaning of 淤
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- silt
- river sludge
- to silt up
- choked with silt
- variant of 瘀[yu1]
How 淤 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Water.
氵 gives the meaning and 於 hints at the sound.
Radical: 氵 (water), shared by 467 characters on this site.
How to remember 淤
淤 combines water 氵 with 於 (yú), which gives the sound. Picture water that stops moving and leaves mud behind, and you have silt that clogs a river.
淤 appears mostly in compounds. 淤泥 (yūní) means silt or sludge, and 淤青 (yūqīng) is the everyday word for a bruise, where blood has pooled under the skin. Example: 我腿上有一块淤青。(Wǒ tuǐ shang yǒu yí kuài yūqīng.) I have a bruise on my leg.
Common mistake: Learners often read 淤 as yú because its phonetic part 於 is read yú, but 淤 is first tone, yū. Also do not confuse it with 瘀 (yū), which uses the sickness radical 疒 and is the more medical spelling for blood stasis.
Common words with 淤
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 淤青 | yūqīng | bruise; contusion | |
| 淤泥 | yūní | silt; sludge |
Questions about 淤
How many strokes are in 淤?
淤 is written with 11 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 淤 mean?
淤 (yū) means mud, sediment; to clog up, to silt up. A common word with it is 淤青 (yūqīng), meaning "bruise; contusion".
How do you pronounce 淤?
淤 is pronounced yū, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 淤?
The radical of 淤 is 氵, which carries the idea of "water". Dictionaries list 淤 under this radical.
What is the difference between 淤青 and 瘀青?
Both mean a bruise and are pronounced yūqīng. 瘀青 uses the sickness radical and is often seen in medical contexts, while 淤青 is a common everyday spelling since 淤 is listed as a variant of 瘀.
How do you say a river is silted up?
You can say 河道淤塞 (hédào yūsè), meaning the river channel is blocked with silt. 淤积 (yūjī) describes silt building up over time.