武

wǔ
adjective #7,633

Meanings

  1. 1 martial; military
  2. 2 fierce; valiant

Examples

HSK 4
Tā xué le shí nián wǔshù.
He studied martial arts for ten years.
HSK 5
Wǔhàn shì yī zuò dà chéngshì.
Wuhan is a big city.

Tips

usage
武 appears in 武术 (martial arts), 武器 (weapon), 武汉 (the city), 武力 (military force). Contrasts with 文 (civil/literary).
culture
The 文武 duality - civil and martial - is central to Chinese thought. An ideal leader masters both: literary refinement (文) and martial strength (武).

Components

radical
止 zhǐ
foot; stop
武 is indexed under the 止 (foot) radical, picking the four-stroke foot at the centre as the anchor. Classic compound-ideograph reading: a foot marching with a weapon - military action. The 止 sits inside the 弋 weapon-frame, picturing the soldier on the move.
ideograph
一 yī
one; top horizontal
A single horizontal cap at the top of the character, part of the 弋-frame that wraps around the 止 inside. It marks the upper limit of the weapon-bracket and helps establish the upper-left-corner enclosure pattern of the whole glyph.
semantic
弋 yì
stake; dart-cord; weapon
The 弋 weapon-frame wraps around the 止 foot, with its upper stroke coming first and the slanted body plus dot finishing the character. It supplies the 'weapon, military force' half of the compound, balancing the marching foot inside.

Stroke Order

武 wǔ