艸 meaning and stroke order
Grass
How to write 艸, stroke by stroke
6 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
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Meaning of 艸
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- variant of 草[cao3]
How 艸 is built
Pictographic character. Grass sprouting.
How to remember 艸
艸 is two sprouts of 屮 standing side by side, like two little tufts of grass coming up from the ground. One sprout is a plant, two together make a patch of grass.
艸 is an old variant of 草 (cǎo), and in modern Chinese you will almost always write 草 instead. You mainly meet 艸 as the full form of the grass radical, which is squeezed into 艹 on top of characters like 花 (huā, flower) and 茶 (chá, tea). Example in modern writing: 草地 (cǎodì, lawn).
Common mistake: Learners sometimes try to use 艸 in everyday writing, but people today write 草 (cǎo) for grass. Also do not confuse the component 屮 with 山 (shān, mountain); 屮 has a center stroke that pokes up through the top like a sprout.
Questions about 艸
How many strokes are in 艸?
艸 is written with 6 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 艸 mean?
艸 (cǎo) means grass.
How do you pronounce 艸?
艸 is pronounced cǎo, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the simplified form of 艸?
艸 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 草, used in mainland China and Singapore.
How is 艸 related to the 艹 on top of many characters?
艹 is the compressed form of 艸 used when it sits at the top of a character. Characters with 艹 on top, such as 草, 花 and 菜, are usually related to plants.
Is 艸 pronounced differently from 草?
No. Both are read cǎo with the third tone. 艸 is simply a variant way of writing the same word.