Mosquito larvae wriggle about in the stagnant water.
Tips
usage
Best known from 孑然一身 (all alone, with no family or company). The pair 孑孓 separately names a wriggling mosquito larva.
memory
It looks like 子 (child) with its right arm cut off — picture a lone, one-armed figure and you have both the look and the 'solitary, incomplete' meaning.
Components
ideograph
孑jié
solitary; all alone
Not decomposable: it is a stylized 子 (child) drawn missing its right arm, an abstract picture of something incomplete and standing alone. Filed under the 子 radical.