莴 meaning and stroke order
Lettuce
How to write 莴, stroke by stroke
10 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 莴
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- used in 萵苣|莴苣[wo1 ju4]
- used in 萵筍|莴笋[wo1 sun3]
How 莴 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Plant.
艹 gives the meaning and 呙 hints at the sound.
Radical: 艹 (grass), shared by 421 characters on this site.
How to remember 莴
The grass radical 艹 on top tells you this is a plant, and 呙 (guō) below gives a hint of the sound. Picture a leafy plant growing above a round pot to remember 莴 (wō), lettuce.
莴 almost never appears alone. It shows up in 莴苣 (wōjù), lettuce, and 莴笋 (wōsǔn), celtuce or stem lettuce, a common vegetable in Chinese cooking. Example: 我今天炒了莴笋。(Wǒ jīntiān chǎo le wōsǔn.) I stir-fried some celtuce today.
Common mistake: Learners often read 莴 as guō because of the phonetic part 呙, but the correct reading is wō with a first tone. Also do not confuse it with 窝 (wō, nest), which has the same sound but uses the cave radical 穴 on top instead of 艹.
Common words with 莴
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 莴苣 | wōjù | lettuce (Lactuca sativa) |
莴 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 莴
How many strokes are in 莴?
莴 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 莴 mean?
莴 (wō) means lettuce. A common word with it is 莴苣 (wōjù), meaning "lettuce (Lactuca sativa)".
How do you pronounce 莴?
莴 is pronounced wō, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 莴?
The radical of 莴 is 艹, which carries the idea of "grass". Dictionaries list 莴 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 莴?
The traditional form of 莴 is 萵. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 莴 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
What is the difference between 莴苣 and 莴笋?
莴苣 (wōjù) is the general name for lettuce. 莴笋 (wōsǔn) refers to a variety grown for its thick, crunchy stem, often called celtuce in English, and it is usually peeled and cooked.
Is 莴苣 the everyday word for salad lettuce?
In daily speech many people say 生菜 (shēngcài) for the leafy lettuce eaten raw. 莴苣 sounds more formal or botanical, while 莴笋 is the everyday word for the stem vegetable.