芜

蕪
wú
adjective #44,576

Meanings

  1. 1 overgrown with weeds
  2. 2 (of writing) cluttered; messy

Examples

HSK 7-9
Huāyuán wúrén dǎlǐ, yǐjīng huāngwú le.
The garden had no one tending it and was overgrown with weeds.
HSK 7-9
这篇文章繁芜,需要删改。
Zhè piān wénzhāng fánwú, xūyào shāngǎi.
This essay is wordy and cluttered; it needs trimming.

Tips

usage
Most common in 荒芜 (land lying waste, overgrown). By extension 芜 also describes writing that is cluttered and rambling, as in 去芜存菁 (cut the dross, keep the essence).

Components

radical
艹 cǎo
grass; plants
The grass radical on top, the compressed form of 艸. Weeds and untended vegetation are the core image of 芜, so the grass radical states the meaning directly.
phonetic
无 wú
without; none
Pure sound: standalone 无 is wú and 芜 keeps the reading exactly. The without meaning does not enter the word, only the pronunciation.

Stroke Order

芜 wú