卫

衛

wèi

verb #5,299

Meanings

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

Examples

卫生间在哪里？

Wèishēngjiān zài nǎlǐ?

Where is the bathroom?

我们要保卫国家。

Wǒmen yào bǎowèi guójiā.

We must defend our country.

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