枯 (kū) · withered, dried up, desiccated

Meanings

1 withered
2 dried up
3 desiccated
4 dead (of plants)

Characters

枯

kū

withered; dried up

Examples

HSK 7-9

秋天到了，树叶枯黄凋落。

Qiūtiān dào le, shùyè kū huáng diāo luò.

Autumn has arrived; the leaves have withered yellow and fallen.

HSK 7-9

久旱无雨，河流都枯了。

Jiǔ hàn wú yǔ, héliú dōu kū le.

After a long drought without rain, the rivers have all dried up.

Tips

register

枯 is more classical and literary than 干 (gān, dry) or 干枯 (gānkū, dried up). It often appears in poetry and formal writing to evoke desolation or the passage of time, as in 枯木 (withered wood) and 枯井 (dried-up well).

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left tree radical - pictograph of a tree. It marks 枯 as belonging to the tree family but specifically a tree in decline: dried out, leafless, dead-standing. The pairing with "old" on the right is one of the cleanest mnemonics in the language - the old tree withers.

phonetic

古 gǔ

old; ancient

Right 古 supplies the sound - gǔ drifting to kū through historical k-onset alternation. It also reinforces the meaning: an old tree is a withered tree. 古 (ten generations of mouths) pictures something so old it has dried out. Same phonetic in 苦 bitter, 故 reason.