卫

衛

wèi

verb #5,299

Meanings

1 to guard; to protect; to defend
2 guardian; defense

Examples

HSK 2

卫生间在哪里？

Wèishēngjiān zài nǎlǐ?

Where is the bathroom?

HSK 3

我们要保卫国家。

Wǒmen yào bǎowèi guójiā.

We must defend our country.

HSK 3

注意个人卫生。

Zhùyì gèrén wèishēng.

Pay attention to personal hygiene.

Tips

usage

卫 is used in: 卫生 (hygiene/sanitary), 卫生间 (bathroom), 保卫 (to defend), 卫星 (satellite), 防卫 (defense), 自卫 (self-defense). 卫生间 is the polite way to say 'bathroom' in Chinese.

Components

ideograph

卫 wèi

to guard; defend

Heavily simplified from 衛 in the 1956 reform - the traditional form showed feet (止) marching around an enclosure (韋) on a road (行). The modern 3-stroke 卫 is a stylised cursive residue with no transparent components. Indexed under Kangxi #5 乙 (yǐ, second) by stroke pattern via the curving sweep.

Filed under radical 乙 (yǐ, #5) by convention. 乙 is not a separate component in 卫, so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order